Nexchip Semiconductor is China’s third-largest pure-play foundry, a sentence that until recently would not have led to a Hong Kong listing. It does now. The Hefei-based, state-backed chipmaker is seeking to raise up to HK$6.98 billion, or roughly $890 million, in a share sale that adds to a sudden rush of Chinese semiconductor companies floating in a market that had been quiet for years.
The terms are set. Nexchip is offering 216.2 million shares at a maximum price of HK$32.30 each, with trading expected to begin on 10 July. The listing is a dual one, pairing Nexchip’s existing Shanghai presence with a Hong Kong float that opens the company to international capital it cannot easily reach at home, which is much of the point of being in Hong Kong at all.
The company sits behind only SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor in China’s foundry hierarchy, and its origins explain a good deal about it. Founded in 2015 as a joint venture between Hefei’s government-owned investment arm and Taiwan’s Powerchip Technology, Nexchip is a creature of China’s industrial policy, the kind of firm built to absorb state ambition and domestic demand rather than to chase the bleeding edge of chipmaking.
The money is going into capacity. Nexchip is building a Phase IV facility in Hefei’s Xinzhan High-Tech Zone, a 35.5 billion yuan investment, around $5.1 billion, designed to produce 55,000 wafers a month at the 28nm and 40nm nodes.
