By Li Panpan

(JW Insights) Oct 18 -- Chongqing Xinlian IC (重庆芯联), a new IC company in southwestern China's Chongqing City, was established on October 11, JW Insights learned from Tianyancha, a provider of Chinese corporation data and due diligence platform.

With a registered capital of RMB8.7 billion ($1.19 billion), the new company will focus on the design and manufacturing of advanced automotive-grade 12-inch large IC.

Chongqing Xinlian IC's shareholders include Chongqing High-tech Zone Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Research Institute, Chongqing Machinery and Electrics Holding Group, Qingling Motors, Changan Automobile, among others.

Automobile is one of Chongqing's core industries, along with Chengdu City of Sichuan Province. Changan Automobile, headquartered in Chongqing, is the flagship vehicle maker. One-third of Changan Automobile's suppliers are from Sichuan, and there are large cooperation orders exceeding RMB20 billion ($2.73 billion) yearly, according to a Changan Automobile executive.

Leading other automakers in Chongqing, Changan Automobile is fast adjusting to transformation of automobiles. It has launched new products in intelligent network connection and new energy.

There is no information on what automotive chips Chongqing Xinlian will make. Industry insiders revealed that Xinlian's product direction may be a highly integrated and high-computing heterogeneous SoC smart cockpit chip that integrates CPU, GPU, NPU, VPU, ISP, DPU, and DSP clusters.