Confirmation of the alliance is still to be confirmed but Fujitsu spokesman Takashi Yagi told Reuters: "We would not deny that we are in talks with Toshiba over such alliance possibilities, but Toshiba is not the only one we are talking with.

“Nothing specific has been decided," he concluded.

According to Japanese Business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun the two companies are aiming to have a broad chip-making alliance in place by May of this year. Recent Fujitsu chip sales totalled Y396bn ($3bn) whilst Toshiba posted Y680bn ($5.2bn) in the last business year. However, the joint business would still trail behind Intel in the world chip manufacturing market.