China decides to cook its own chips $12bn to fry up some memory dies

Chinese government-owned #Tsinghua Unigroup, having failed to buy #Micron, is going to make its own memory chips.

The WSJ reports that TU will spend $12bn-plus to build a fab and make acquisitions. It's being positioned as part of China's long term goal of being less dependent on Western technology.

The acquisitions will be made by a newly set up subsidiary called #TongfangGuoxinElectronics (TGE), which has a filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The report suggests it could acquire IP needed to manufacture memory chips. The TGE filing said it would raise $12.6bn in a private placement with funds coming from TU and TU chairman Zhao Weiguo's investment company.

TU is not a listed company and is part of the Chinese state-owned Tsinghua Holdings.

TU is investing $600m in #PowertechTechnology in Taiwan. It will have a 25 per cent holding, the largest one, and Powertech will be Tsinghua's chip assembly and testing partner.

El Reg expects China to try to set up its own NAND manufacturing facility as well. ®

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