Top China chip toolmakers consolidate to build national champions, defy US curbs
Big Fund-invested Piotech plans to acquire Wuxi Shangji and diversify into wafer-bonding, leveraging a big revenue surge to capture the local tool market
In the latest move, Shanghai-listed chip equipment maker Piotech said in a filing to the stock exchange on Saturday that it planned to acquire a controlling stake in Wuxi Shangji Semiconductor.
Piotech’s largest shareholder was China’s state-backed National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund – better known as the Big Fund – which held a 16.5 per cent stake as of late March, according to the company’s first-quarter report.
Formally known as Tuojing Technology, Piotech planned to fund the acquisition via share issuance and cash, while raising supporting funds. The transaction was in its early stages, and a final price had not been determined, Piotech said.
The acquisition is designed to help Piotech expand beyond its core strength in thin-film deposition equipment – such as PECVD and ALD – alongside wafer-bonding technologies for three-dimensional integration.
Founded in 2021, Wuxi Shangji develops physical vapour deposition (PVD), etching and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) equipment, according to its annual report. Its products serve sectors including power devices, advanced packaging, compound semiconductors and integrated circuits.