One of China’s most prominent homegrown chipmakers is up for sale. Media reports suggest tech giant Alibaba is the frontrunner to take over Tsinghua Unigroup, the debt-saddled semiconductor manufacturer that’s currently majority-owned by Tsinghua University, in a deal worth nearly $8 billion.
Buying Unigroup would be a significant win for Alibaba, which is reeling from a political crackdown over the past year. It would also provide a lifeline for a company once at the forefront of China’s national push to build a homegrown semiconductor industry.
How Unigroup landed in this position, despite backing from one of China’s most prestigious universities in an environment flush with subsidies, is a complicated question. This week, The Wire charts its rapid debt-fueled expansion, its many investments, and what a deal could mean for its future.
HERBAL ROOTS
Data: OECD (2019)
Unigroup’s origins in 1988 had little to do with chipmaking. Although affiliat
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