What’s new: China’s first independently developed memory chip project raised 15.65 billion yuan ($2.39 billion) from state capital and private investors.
Ruili Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd., the parent company of ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc., raised the funds from a group of new and existing investors. They include National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Anhui Sanzhong Yichuang Industrial Development Fund, Hefei State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund and GigaDevice Semiconductor Beijing Inc.
Of the 15.65 billion yuan, 5% will be temporarily put into a capital reserve. After certain conditions are met according to the investment agreement, the remaining funds will be released, a person close to ChangXin told Caixin.
The background: Based in the Anhui capital of Hefei, ChangXin was established in May 2016 as a project co-led by the local state-owned Hefei Industrial Investment Fund and GigaDevice Semiconductor.
ChangXin began mass producing dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips in September 2019 as China’s first company to design and fabricate the devices. Such integrated circuits are a central component of most computing devices.
China is pouring billions of dollars into building its own semiconductor sector. Memory chips accounted for $106 billion of the broader $412 billion semiconductor market in 2019, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. While China is the world’s largest buyer of semiconductors, domestic companies account for a negligible share of chipmaking.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).
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