Intel has not announced a date for the move or a city for its headquarters. Earlier, the company announced plans to create a US$200m venture capital fund to invest in innovative Chinese technology companies. To date, Intel Capital, the investment arm, has funded nearly 50 Chinese companies in nine cities as it looks to China's IT industry to drive its growth.
Meanwhile, Time Innovation Ventures, a US-based venture capital firm, will invest up to a total of US$2.8bn by 2006 to build a microelectronics industrial park in Nanjing's Jiangning District to house semiconductor manufacturing and testing sites, with construction expected to begin this year.
Another notable investment came by way of BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing, a Cayman Islands company jointly financed by Intel, Acer, NRI and UOB, which pumped US$1bn into its wholly owned subsidiary Shanghai Powerchip Integration Manufacturing Co.
The gathering momentum in China's semiconductor industry is not good news for everyone. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) has warned that China's growing chip market could pose a threat to Taiwan's within three to five years. While TIER called for a cautious response to China's growing chips market, it also pressed the industry to develop a long-term plan to deal with the rising competition.