GUANGDONG UNVEILS NEW 11b YUAN CHIP FUND
Provincial government among local authorities trying to align regional development with Beijing’s priorities to ensure self-reliance in the sector
Guangdong province has set up a new 11 billion yuan (HK$12.03 billion) chip industry fund in a fresh sign that the country will continue to pump money into achieving greater semiconductor self-reliance amid escalating US export restrictions.
The fund, Phase II of the Guangdong Semiconductor and Integrated Circuit Industry Equity Investment Fund, was initiated by the provincial government’s own fund and two municipal government funds, according to information from Tianyancha, a mainland corporate data provider.
Guangdong is among several local governments trying to align regional industry development with Beijing’s priorities. For example, Shanghai’s municipal government set up a semiconductor industry investment fund in 2016, which has an existing capital base of 28.5 billion yuan.
Guangdong set up Phase I of its fund in December 2020, and has already set aside 10 billion yuan of investment for related chip projects in the province. It does not list the projects it has supported.
The Phase II fund is mainly financed by Guangdong Yuecai Holdings, a financial holding enterprise directly under the Guangdong government, which owns over 90 per cent of the fund. Two city-level industry investment funds, from Dongguan and Zhongshan, both own a 4.5 per cent stake in the new fund.
The Guangdong fund is a local version of the China National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund.
Despite a raft of corruption scandals, China has decided to continue to provide liquidity for selected chip projects, including Yangtze Memory Technologies Co, the top memory chip maker, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, the country’s top foundry.
The Big Fund was set up in 2014 with an initial round of investments reaching more than 138 billion yuan. The second phase was set up in 2019, with a scale of over 200 billion yuan.
Beijing’s “whole-nation” approach to domestic semiconductor development marshals resources from both the state and private sectors, as the country seeks to protect itself from intensified US trade sanctions.
In October, the US Bureau of Industry and Security issued a new round of export control rules for chips, an escalation from a first round of export controls put in a year ago that aim to impede China’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence development on national security grounds.
Industry analysts have said the effort could take years to bear fruit but earlier this year Huawei Technologies, itself subject to US sanctions, launched a new 5G-capable smartphone – the Mate 60 Pro – with an advanced, home-grown chip.
China’s state-owned enterprises have also moved to provide money to chip projects.
China Reform Holdings, a government arm that invests in and trades equity stakes of small state-owned firms, said in September it would set up a fund to channel at least 100 billion yuan to strategically important emerging industries, including semiconductors, according to a report by China Business News.
The US has also borrowed a page from Beijing’s playbook of using state funds to support strategic projects with the 2022 Chips and Science Act, which promises subsidies for chip projects.
The first semiconductor grant would award US$35 million to the American subsidiary of British aerospace firm BAE Systems, the US Commerce Department said last week.