Shanghai may attract up to US$2bn in semiconductor investment this year, Reuters reported a senior official of the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Association as telling a local industry forum. The figure was based on investment proposals submitted to the city government and was 30 per cent higher than in the previous year.
For example, two Taiwanese chipmakers, Semiconductor International Manufacturing Corp and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, are each investing billions of dollars to build foundries that will begin turning out wafers by 2003. Taiwan memory chipmaker Mosel Vitelic has also applied for approval to invest US$500m in a production facility in Shanghai. Intel also plans to increase its spending in a chipset plant in suburban Shanghai.
Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (ASMC), which is 38 per cent owned by Philips and produces lower-end power management and mixed signal chips, said that it had plans to invest up to US$600m over the next 10 years to increase production to 30,000 wafers a month. It was starting with a first phase costing US$100m, which would produce up to 5,000 wafers a month. Another partner in ASMC, local firm Shanghai Belling, had plans to purchase a used eight-inch wafer production line from Taiwan, though the company said it was reconsidering the purchase on account of the price.
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