China invests $5.4 billion in two-year-old memory chipmaker

Semiconductor startup Changxin Xinqiao Memory Technologies Inc. has raised 39 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) from government-backed investors, a sign Beijing is doubling down on its efforts to achieve technological self-sufficiency and counter US sanctions.

In its latest funding round, Hefei-based Changxin Xinqiao secured 14.6 billion yuan from the state-backed China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II in late October and funding from two other investors affiliated with the local government, according to Chinese corporate data provider Tianyancha.

It's one of the biggest investments China's flagship semiconductor fund, better known as Big Fund, has made since Beijing probed its former heads for corruption about a year ago.

Founded in 2021, the little-known Changxin Xinqiao shares some shareholders and its general manager with China's leading DRAM chipmaker Changxin Memory Technologies Inc., which is also headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, according to Tianyancha.