One of the world’s top suppliers of the coatings used to print chip circuits is changing hands again. Mitsui Chemicals said Monday it has agreed to buy JSR, the Tokyo-based maker of photoresists, from funds run by JIC Capital for 1.84 trillion yen, or about $11.6 billion, with the Development Bank of Japan putting 200 billion yen into the deal.

Photoresists are the light-sensitive coatings that let lithography tools print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. In an investor presentation on the deal, Mitsui Chemicals described JSR as No. 2 in the global market for ArF and EUV photoresists and “the only company capable of offering both CAR and MOR solutions for EUV.” JSR’s semiconductor materials sales rose from 157.9 billion yen in fiscal 2024 to 196.0 billion yen in fiscal 2025, the presentation shows.

Reuters, in a report carried by CNA , called the purchase among the largest in the sector and more than double the $4.55 billion paid for Hitachi Chemical in 2020.

A second sale in three years

JSR has…