By Greg Gao

(JW Insights) May 5 -- Nexchip Semiconductor(晶合集成), a Chinese chip foundry, made its debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market on May 5, with a nearly RMB40 billion($5.78 billion) market cap.

Established in May 2015 as a joint venture between Hefei City Construction Investment Holding (Group) and Powerchip Technology Corporation from Taiwan, Nexchip is mainly engaged in the foundry business of 12-inch wafers and provides foundry services of various process nodes and different process platforms.

Nexchip has set up research and development platforms for processes such as 150nm, 110nm, 90nm, and 55nm, covering areas such as DDIC, CIS, MCU, PMIC, E-Tag, Mini LED, and other logic chips.

Currently, the company has achieved mass production for 12-inch wafer foundry platforms of the 90nm to 150nm process nodes. Customer product validation is underway for the 12-inch wafer foundry platforms of the 55nm process node.

Moreover, Nexchip has built a research and development team composed of experienced experts. As of June 30, 2021, the company had 338 R&D personnel, accounting for 16.48% of total employees, and obtained 176 patents.

From 2018 to 2021, Nexchip’s revenues showed a rapid growth trend, with the proportion of products of the 90nm process node continuing to increase. The product structure has been continuously optimized, said the company.

According to the statistics of Frost & Sullivan, an American business consulting firm, as of 2020, Nexchip has become the pure wafer foundry company with the third largest revenue and 12-inch wafer foundry capacity in the Chinese mainland.

The company aims to become a comprehensive wafer manufacturing enterprise focusing on wafer foundry products and design service capabilities and gradually forms four major product lines of display drivers, image sensors, microcontrollers, and power management, according to the company.