Tsinghua Unigroup acquires XMC

Recently, Tsinghua Unigroup Chairman Zhao Weiguo has in partnership with the National IC Fund and the Hubei Provincial Government, agreed to take a management role in a new company focused on memory technology called Yangtze River Storage Technology.  This new firm will be the parent company of Wuhan XMC, which in March of this year received national funding to build a $24 billion memory-chip manufacturing center in the city of Wuhan. The name of the new company appeared in regulatory filings in May and July. The filings sought preliminary approval for a business registration.

XMC is a state-owned semiconductor foundry established in 2006, and much smaller than Unigroup, but its memory-chip project was backed by both the national chip fund and the Academy of Sciences, a top government research institute.  Previously, Tsinghua was separately pursuing its own memory chip project, and had attempted a number of international acquisitions to accomplish that goal, none of which have been successful.

The reason for the new partnership between Tsinghua and Wuhan XMC is to enhance China's capability to produce memory chips, the components that store data in electronic devices. Developing that capability is a priority for the country’s economic planners.
Semiconductors are a focus in China’s goal to upgrade its economy with more profitable, high-tech businesses.