By staff writer at affiliated news agencies
The son of Formosa Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) plans a joint venture with the son of Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) in a US$6.4 billion plan to build wafer fabs in Shanghai.
Winston Wang (王文洋) and Jiang Nianheng (江年衡) have been given the go-ahead by the Chinese government to construct the chip plants, local media said yesterday, quoting sources in China. In addition, the pair have been awarded a preferential loan package to help get the venture started.
The company jointly set up by Wang and Jiang will build three 8-inch wafer plants and three 12-inch wafer plants, reports said. Japan's Oki Electronic Industry Co will provide technical expertise. The investment is said to be the largest in China's semiconductor sector in recent years.
The venture will likely challenge Taiwan's "no haste, be patient" policy on China investment -- the fate of which is being hotly debated as the new government prepares to take power in May.
Sources from Taiwan's semiconductor industry said DRAM production at the new plants is a possibility. Meanwhile, other sources have speculated that the focus is more likely to be the wafer industry, given that Oki's DRAM technology has fallen far behind leading global manufacturers and the US government has set limits on the export of high-end DRAM manufacturing technology to China.
Because of the sensitive nature of the project, the company has yet to make public a list of investors. If construction of the first plant begins in the second half of this year, mass production will kick off in 2002 at the earliest, reports said.
Wang, who heads up the Hung Jen Group (宏仁集團), has extensive investments in petrochemical production in China. Wang switched his focus to China after he was banished by his father roughly three years ago for having a widely-publicized extramarital affair.