Samsung to invest $7bn in China chip fabrication

Samsung agreed to invest $7 billion in a factory in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, getting on board with the country’s microchip investment push. The investment over three years will expand the South Korean tech giant’s chip production plant at the Xi’an Hi-Tech Industries Development Zone, Caixin reports. The expanded plant will meet growing demand for the NAND flash memory chips that power everything from smartphones to connected appliances, the Shaanxi government said in a statement, without mentioning the amount of capacity to be added. Samsung joins a number of global heavyweights including Taiwan’s TSMC and US-based GlobalFoundries in setting up chip plants, often called fabs, in China, as the nation aims to become a semiconductor superpower in the expanding digital economy. Some 17 new fabs have been recently announced to be built over the next two years, according to industry tracking firm TrendForce.