Semiconductor start-up Changxin Xinqiao Memory Technologies Inc (長鑫新橋) has raised 39 billion yuan (US$5.4 billion) from government-backed investors, a sign Beijing is doubling down on its efforts to achieve technological self-sufficiency and counter US sanctions.
In its latest funding round, Hefei-based Changxin Xinqiao secured 14.6 billion yuan from the state-backed China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II late last month and funding from two other investors affiliated with the local government, according to Chinese corporate data provider Tianyancha (天眼查).
It is one of the biggest investments China’s flagship semiconductor fund, better known as the Big Fund, has made since Beijing probed its former heads for corruption about a year ago.
Photo: Reuters
Founded in 2021, the little-known Changxin Xinqiao shares some shareholders and its general manager with China’s leading DRAM chipmaker Changxin Memory Technologies Inc (長鑫存儲), which is also headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, according to Tianyancha.
Changxin Memory aims to compete with global leaders including Micron Technology Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, and it is planning to file for an initial public offering in China that could value the chipmaker at more than US$14.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.
Beijing has been intent on making breakthroughs in its semiconductor industry even as the US is trying to limit China’s access to cutting-edge chip technologies. It scored an early success with Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) release of a 5G phone with silicon made by top Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際) in August.
The Big Fund, the main financing vehicle for Beijing’s long-term semiconductor objectives, has gradually ramped up funding this year. So far this year, it has made at least a dozen investments including the one in Changxin Xinqiao, Tianyancha data shows.
Founded in 2014, the fund drew about US$45 billion in capital and backed scores of companies including US-blacklisted Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (長江存儲), before the graft probe chilled activity.
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