China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd plans to invest 300 billion yuan ($47 billion) over the next five years in a bid to become the world’s third-biggest chipmaker, the chairman of the state-backed technology conglomerate said on Monday. Chairman Zhao Weiguo also told Reuters in an interview in Beijing that the company controlled by Tsinghua University, which counts President Xi Jinping among its alumni, was in talks with a US-based company involved in the chip industry. A deal could be finalized as early as the end of this month, he said. He declined to give more details but said buying a majority stake was unlikely as it was too “sensitive” for the US. “If you can’t be the top-three giant, it will be very hard to develop your business in the chip industry,” Zhao said, citing reports that China imported more chips than crude oil every year. Currently, Qualcomm Inc holds the No.3 position in the global chip rankings, behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and market leader Intel Corp., which has a market capitalization of $151.5 billion.
