A little-known Chinese company that styles itself one of the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturers is to acquire Dutch chipmaker Nexperia for 25.2 billion yuan (US$3.63 billion), a megadeal that needs US approval at a time when US concerns about China’s rise run high.
Wingtech Technology Co (聞泰科技) would effectively acquire 75.86 percent of Nexperia, which NXP Semiconductors NV sold to a consortium of Chinese investors in 2016.
It is to consolidate control of the Dutch chipmaker under a company that assembles devices for smartphone brands from Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Xiaomi Corp (小米).
China has been trying to free itself from a reliance on foreign technology, investing billions of dollars in the semiconductors considered vital to national security.
However, the deal for Nexperia requires approval from the US Committee on Foreign Investment, an agency that has already torpedoed a number of high-profile deals over the past year.
Concerns about China’s acquisition of technology have grown since US President Donald Trump accused the world’s second-largest economy of unfairly getting its hands on valuable intellectual property.
BRANCHING OUT
Wingtech itself is not a name that travels beyond tech industry circles.
It was founded in 2006 by Zhang Xuezheng (張學政), a former engineer-turned-executive at ZTE Corp (中興) — the telecoms gear giant that incurred US ire this year for violating export sanctions.
Like iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海機密), Wingtech makes devices on behalf of other brands, such as Xiaomi’s low-end Redmi.
However, it is now trying to build up its semiconductor capabilities, including in chip design, manufacturing and packaging, and has said that it would grow its research and development arms in Shenzhen, Xian and Shanghai.
Wingtech has not fully outlined how is to bankroll the acquisition of Nexperia, which supplies automotive and industrial clients with components from diodes to logic packages.
The Chinese company in a filing on Thursday said that it would raise 4.63 billion yuan by issuing up to 127.45 million shares — still a fraction of the intended outlay.
Its shares have been suspended from trade since April, when it disclosed an outline of the deal and its market value stood at 19.4 billion yuan. The company reported about 16.8 billion yuan in revenue last year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”