China’s top chip maker SMIC reshuffles board amid looming threat of more US restrictions
- Zhao Haijun, co-chief executive officer of SMIC, has stepped down as an executive board member to focus on his managerial role
- The overhaul leaves SMIC’s board with no foreign nationals, and many of the current board members have close ties with the government
China’s chip making champion Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), which reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter, has reshuffled its board amid the rising risk of US sanctions.
Zhao Haijun, co-chief executive officer of SMIC, has stepped down as an executive board member to focus on his managerial role, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
Wu Hanming, a veteran Chinese microelectronics expert and a former engineer at Intel, was appointed an independent non-executive director on the same day to take over from William Tudor Brown, former president of British chip design specialist Arm and who has been on SMIC’s board for nine years, according to the announcement.
The overhaul leaves SMIC’s board with no foreign nationals, and many of the current board members have close ties with the government and state-backed tech companies.
On the same day, the company reported a robust performance for the three months ended in June. Revenue jumped 41.6 per cent year-on-year to US$1.9 billion, with net profit sliding 25 per cent to US$514.3 million from a year earlier due to rising costs. Revenue for the next quarter is expected to remain flat or grow slightly, the company said.