China to build three memory fabs for $70 billion

State-owned Chinese chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup is preparing to make a series of massive investments to become one of world's largest memory chip makers. DigiTimes reports Tsinghua Unigroup chairman Zhao Weiguo announced a $24 billion investment in its Yangtze River Storage Technology subsidiary to construct a new memory plant in Wuhan (Hebei province).

Furthermore, Tsinghua Unigroup also has plans to build factories in Chengu (Sichuan province) and Nanjing (Jiangsu province), these to projects are estimated at $46 billion.

Tsinghua Unigroup is assisting subsidiary Yangtze River Storage Technology to establish a new memory plant in Wuhan (Hebei province). Construction of the plant, which will cover an area of about 13 hectares, kicked off recently.

Total investment in Yangtze River Storage Tech's new plant in Wuhan is estimated at US$24 billion. The facility will be dedicated to producing 3D NAND flash memory with volume production slated for 2018.

In addition, Tsinghua Unigroup plans to break ground for another two plants - one located in Chengu (Sichuan province) and the other in Nanjing (Jiangsu province) - in 2017, Zhao disclosed. Total investment in the two sites is estimated at US$46 billion, Zhao said.

Besides these memory ventures, industry analysts believe Tsinghua Unigroup is also planning to get into IC manufacturing.