Tsinghua Unigroup

Tsinghua Unigroup Co., Ltd. is a state-owned Chinese technology and semiconductor manufacturer that also supplies digital infrastructure and services to domestic and global markets. Based in Beijing, it is among the country's largest technology conglomerates; subsidiaries include UNISOC, China's largest mobile phone chip designer.[1][2] Other core subsidies design and manufacture network equipment and server and storage products, and produce system integration, network security and software applications.

Overview

Tsinghua Unigroup has five main subsidiaries, New H3C Technologies, UNISOC Communications Co, Guoxin Micro, and UniCloud Technology Co. Other subsidiaries include Unisplendour. and France-based Linxens, a design and manufacturing company of micro-connectors for smart cards, RFID antennas and inlays.[3]

U.S. technology company Intel owns a 20 percent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup's UNISOC subsidiary—a consolidation of Tsinghua Unigroup acquisitions of Spreadtrum Communications, a fabless semiconductor company, and semiconductor components manufacturer RDA Microelectronics.[4][5] Tsinghua Unigroup operates a joint venture with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), as H3C Technologies Co, created after Tsinghua Unigroup purchased a 51 percent stake.[6]

History

Tsinghua Unigroup was founded in 1988 as a spinoff of Tsinghua Holdings, a state-owned enterprise affiliated with Tsinghua University, a major state research university in Beijing.[7] The company was founded as Tsinghua University Sci-Tech General Company,[8] then renamed Tsinghua Unigroup in 1993.[9] Tsinghua Unigroup is a fabless semiconductor company that is 51 percent owned by Tsinghua Holdings and 49 percent owned by Beijing Jiankun Investment Group; the latter is led by Tsinghua Unigroup chairman and CEO Zhao Weiguo.[8][10] Zhao, a graduate of Tsinghua University, was also appointed CEO of Tsinghua Unigroup in 2009, then made board chairman in 2013.[11] He chaired several of Tsinghua Unigroup's subsidiaries, including Unisplendour and Unigroup Guoxin Micro, until 2018.[12] Zhao remains CEO and chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC).[13]

In the years 2013 and 2014, Tsinghua Unigroup undertook acquisitions that included Spreadtrum Communications, now recognized as UNISOC. Spreadtrum is a fabless semiconductor enterprise known for its mobile chipset platform development. During the same period, Tsinghua Unigroup also acquired RDA Microelectronics, a manufacturer of semiconductor components. These acquisitions resulted in the amalgamation of Spreadtrum and RDA, forming the entity known as UniSpreadtrum RDA, subsequently renamed as UNISOC. A notable development was Intel Corp.'s investment of $1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in this venture.[14][15][16]

In May 2015, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired a 51 percent stake in Hewlett-Packard's H3C Technologies, a China-based data-networking company, for approximately $2.3 billion.[6] In July 2015, Tsinghua Unigroup attempted to acquire U.S. chipmaker Micron for USD 23 billion.[17][18] In September 2015, Western Digital announced that Unisplendour would make a US$3.775 billion equity investment to purchase its newly issued common stock, for about a 15 percent stake in the U.S. firm. Western Digital stated, in February 2016, that Unisplendour would not move forward with its offer following a decision by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to investigate the deal.[19][20] In 2016, Tsinghua Unigroup partnered with Western Digital to establish a big data storage joint venture, Unis WDC Storage Co. in Nanjing[21]

In 2016, Tsinghua Unigroup founded Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), its IDM memory subsidiary. In 2017, Tsinghua Unigroup announced plans to build two new memory-chip factories, in Nanjing and Chengdu.[22] Other investments include about a six percent stake in Portland, Oregon-based Lattice Semiconductor, acquired in 2017.[23]

In June 2018, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired French smart chip components maker Linxens for a reported $2.6 billion.[24][25] A restructuring proposal that would have Guoxin Micro acquire Unic Linxens (formerly Unigroup Liansheng) was rejected by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in June 2020.[26] In 2018, Tsinghua Unigroup also announced the construction of a $1.9 billion Linxens plant in the Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Area in Tianjin, China.[27] The company broke ground in September 2019, and construction of a main factory building was completed in July 2020.[28]

Subsidiaries

In the field of technology, Tsinghua Unigroup invests mainly in Integrated Circuit design and information and communication infrastructure. Tsinghua Unigroup is the controlling shareholder of dozens of technology enterprises such as Unis, UNISOC, Guoxin Micro, Linxens, etc.