Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (FII, 富士康工業互聯網) has invested 9.8 billion yuan (US$1.46 billion) in state-backed Chinese chip company Tsinghua Unigroup (紫光集團) through a private equity fund.
The Shanghai-listed server and networking devices firm, which is 85 percent owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), is planning to invest in the semiconductor industry. It now holds a 15 percent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup through the newly formed Xingwei (Guangzhou) Industrial Investment Partnership Ltd (興微廣州產業投資) fund.
Created in March along with Beijing Zhilu Asset Management Co (北京智路資產管理), the fund is one of 10 equity funds comprising Beijing Zhiguangxin Holding Co (北京智廣芯控股).
Photo: EPA-EFE
Beijing Zhiguangxin now owns 100 percent of Tsinghua Unigroup after injecting 54.9 billion yuan into the cash-strapped chipmaker, the corporate registration of the firm showed on Monday.
Tsinghua Unigroup said it has completed its reorganization plan and emerged from bankruptcy.
“FII is an independent company, listed on the Chinese stock market. The company raised capital in China and used the proceeds to invest in third-party private equity funds, with an aim to explore new technologies and investment targets to fuel the company’s future expansion,” the Hon Hai subsidiary said in a statement.
Tsinghua Unigroup is China’s largest chip company, counting memorychip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (長江存儲) and mobile phone chipmaker Unisoc (Shanghai) Technologies Co (紫光展銳) as major semiconductor subsidiaries.
The transaction requires approval from the Investment Commission, as sensitive technologies are involved, the commission yesterday told the Taipei Times.
Technologies linked to foundry, chip design, testing and packaging are considered sensitive, a commission official said, adding that the deal also requires a technology review conducted by a special task force, as the investment is above US$500 million.
FII last month acquired four chip testing and packaging facilities in China’s Kunshan from ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) through a Chinese private equity fund for an unspecified sum.
Apple Inc started to test sample NAND flash storage made by Yangtze Memory this year, as the US company is considering new sources of memory chips for iPhones to limit supply disruptions, Bloomberg News has reported.
New Unigroup chairman Li Bin (李濱) yesterday said the company is seeking to expand beyond chips to sectors such as genetics and artificial intelligence.
“History has proven that all scientific development and national prosperity depends, among other things, on realizing where one is ignorant,” Li wrote in a memo to employees. “And then it’s the ability to remain curious, endlessly explore and learn, and seek progress.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS