Sony Corp plans to join hands with Toshiba Corp to develop a new generation of semiconductors by investing in a new semiconductor plant Toshiba plans to build in Oita, Oita Prefecture, sources familiar with the project said Friday. The question aroused is whether this agreement will affect the development of the supported chipsets used by both companies in their optical storage devices. The sources said Sony's stake in the project would be limited, with the amount of investment somewhere between billions and tens of billion yen. An announcement is expected early next week. Toshiba plans to invest some 200 billion yen for the Oita project over the next four years.