Shanghai Lingang New Area has recently signed a 12-inch memory chip production line project with a total investment of 35 billion yuan (USD 50 billion), according to Laoyaba.com.
The project owners invested in the construction of a 12-inch wafer fab and related supporting industrial chain projects in the new area of Lingang.
The first phase of the project is planned to build and produce 14nm to 19nm NOR Flash and 3D NAND Flash chips, with a planned monthly production capacity of 60,000 pieces.
It is expected to reach production capacity three years after the plant is built, and annual receivables and profit will reach 1.2 billion US dollars and 400 million dollars respectively after the completion of the production.
"The project owner of the 12-inch storage fab is Macronix. The project is still in the planning stage and has not yet been finalized," the report said citing two people familiar with the matter.
In fact, as early as 2015, many domestic voices suggested to the government to "introduce Macronix to the mainland for storage production".
A number of industry insiders said, "Macronix has a high success rate in the Chinese mainland. First, Macronix has always ranked first in the NOR Flash market and has a market share of more than 23% in the world. Second, Macronix launched 3D NAND around 2005. R & D work, products have been put out for testing in the industry in 2015. "
Although Macronix's market share in the NAND Flash market is not high, it has deep technical reserves.
According to 2015 statistics from the US patent consulting agency LexInnova, Macronix3D NAND patents ranked fourth in the world, second only to SanDisk, Micron, and Samsung.
In 2017, Macronix sued Toshiba in the United States for infringing its NAND Flash and NOR Flash patents, and later won the lawsuit in 2018, receiving $80 million in compensation.
Macronix currently has a market value of approximately 13.2 billion yuan, with revenue of approximately 8.05 billion yuan and cash flow of approximately 2 billion yuan in 2019.
Macronix's financial resources have not been able to solely fund this storage project. However, the Lingang New Area is well funded.
In August 2019, Shanghai established a special development fund for the new area, with a total investment of not less than 100 billion yuan over 5 years, and used it for industrial support, entrepreneurial support, and talent introduction in the new district.
The aforementioned industry analysis: "Although Macronix is late for several years, it has continued to invest in research and development, and its technical strength is still there. The new area of Lingang is rich in funds, and the probability of both parties is very high."
