Chinese state-owned company Tsinghua invests 28 billion euros in memory factory

Tsinghua Unigroup, a chipmaker in which the Chinese state has a majority stake, is to build a nand memory factory in Nanjing. The company is earmarking 28 billion euros for this. Tsinghua wants to join the largest chip manufacturers in the world.

Tsinghua will make dram memory and 3d nand memory in the new factory, EETimes writes. An initial investment of around 9 billion euros should result in a facility that can process 100,000 wafers per month. When construction will start and when the memory fab should be operational, Tsinghua has not disclosed.

Tsinghua is also working on another memory factory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The construction of that fab, which involves an amount of 22.5 billion euros, was announced last March. In the same year, the Chinese chip manufacturer attempted to acquire Micron with a bid of 21 billion euros. That takeover fell through because regulators in the US would probably not approve the takeover.

At the end of 2015, Tsinghua Unigroup announced its intention to play a major role in the global chip market, joining the ranks of manufacturers Intel, Samsung, TSMC and GlobalFoundries. The company aims to achieve that position by investing billions in production facilities and acquisitions.

Tsinghua has made several acquisitions in recent years. At the end of 2013, the company acquired Chinese chipmakers Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics, making it the largest chip manufacturer in China. Intel acquired a 20 percent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup in 2014.

Tsinghua Unigroup was founded in 1988 from Tsinghua University and is 51 percent owned by the Chinese state-owned company Tsinghua Holdings. The remaining 49 percent is owned by an investment group. The construction of the memory factories is in line with the plans of the Chinese government to replace as much foreign technology as possible with its own variants. That ‘replacement program’ should be completed in 2020.