Shanghai software firm is behind Hong Kong’s failed bid for UK’s Pulsic, as geopolitics spurs rivalry for semiconductor supremacy
- Super Orange HK Holding Limited, barred from buying Pulsic Limited in Bristol, is owned by Nanjing Puxin Software Limited
- Puxin is in turn a wholly owned unit of Shanghai Hejian Industrial Software Group, also known as UniVista
A Shanghai software developer is behind the Hong Kong company that was blocked by the UK government from buying a British provider of chip design solutions, giving the rejected transaction geopolitical undertones amid frayed China-UK relations.
Super Orange HK Holding Limited, which was barred overnight by the UK government from buying Pulsic Limited on national security grounds, was established in Hong Kong in August 2021 by Nanjing Puxin Software Limited. Puxin is in turn wholly owned by Shanghai Hejian Industrial Software Group, also known as UniVista, according to the Chinese corporate registry Qichacha.
UniVista’s co-president Xu Yun is the current director of Super Orange, according to the Shanghai company’s website and Hong Kong’s corporate registry. Xu could not be reached to comment, while Puxin in the Jiangsu provincial capital of Nanjing and UniVista in Shanghai did not respond to requests by the Post for comment.
The UK’s rejection of the takeover of Pulsic, based in Bristol, throws the matter under the geopolitical spotlight. Pulsic’s intellectual property and software could “facilitate the building of cutting-edge integrated circuits” used in a “civilian or military supply chain,” and blocking the Hong Kong firm’s takeover deal is “necessary and proportionate to mitigate the risk to national security,” according to Kwasi Kwarteng, the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
UniVista, a start-up founded in March 2021, is an electronic design automation (EDA) and provider of industrial software solutions that focuses on solving “serious challenges and critical issues” faced by semiconductor companies, according to its website. It received a citation this week for an “EDA technology breakthrough” during the 2022 International Integrated Circuit Exhibition and Conference in Nanjing.
EDA software allows semiconductor engineers to design and test their chips, and is a fundamentally important step in China’s ambitions to secure a home-grown supply chain and production ecosystem for semiconductor chips.
US President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan Chips and Science Act into law on August 9, which earmarked nearly US$53 billion to fund American semiconductor production, in answer to Beijing’s focus on semiconductors in the Made in China 2025 industrial master plan.
The UK, a key US ally and a member of the Five Eyes global surveillance alliance, is increasingly taking the US side in the US-China technology rivalry, from following the US lead in banning Huawei Technologies from Britain’s telecommunications network to unplugging Chinese equipment from the UK’s surveillance system.
It was the second time that the UK government had used new powers to block a deal under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which came into force in January this year and gives it powers to stop transactions that might harm national security.
Last month, Britain’s business secretary also blocked the University of Manchester from sharing motion camera technology with a Chinese firm on national security grounds.
China’s chip industry relies heavily on advanced software providers from the West such as Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics.
Last week, the US Department of Commerce announced four new export controls with its eyes on China.
“Emerging and foundational technologies” used for advanced chips, including electronic computer-aided design software for developing next-generation chips with gate-all-around (GAA) field-effect transistor structure, and two substrates of so-called ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors – gallium oxide and diamond – that operate at much higher voltages, frequencies and temperatures than conventional chip materials like silicon, will all fall under strict export restrictions.
UniVista’s establishment - and the attempt to buy Pulsic - emerged out of China’s push for technological independence. The company has raised 2.8 billion yuan (US$412 million) from 11 investors in two funding rounds, according to Crunchbase.
Sequoia Capital China, and the Chinese government’s China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund - also called the Big Fund - were investors in the venture round. IDG Capital and the Beijing-based buyout fund Summitview Capital invested in the seed round, according to the data by Crunchbase.