Tongfu Microelectronics (TFME; ) is a publicly listed Chinese

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

company headquartered in

Nantong Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

. It is one of the largest Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies in mainland China. It has a focus on developing advanced packaging for HPC, new energy,

automotive electronics Automotive electronics are electronic systems used in vehicles, including engine management, ignition, radio, carputers, telematics, in-car entertainment systems, and others. Ignition, engine and transmission electronics are also found in tru ...

, and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

sectors.

Background

The origins of TFME can be traced to Nantong Transistor Factory, a state-owned enterprise established in 1966 to produce transistors. After the

Chinese economic reform Reform and opening-up ( zh, s=改革开放, p=Gǎigé kāifàng), also known as the Chinese economic reform or Chinese economic miracle, refers to a variety of economic reforms termed socialism with Chinese characteristics and socialist marke ...

, overseas products came into the market and state-owned enterprise like Nantong Transistor Factory which lacked competitiveness would go into

financial distress Financial distress is a term in corporate finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company are broken or honored with difficulty. If financial distress cannot be relieved, it can lead to bankruptcy. Financial dist ...

. By the end of the 1980s, the factory was one of the poorest enterprises in Nantong and was close to bankruptcy. In 1990,

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The univers ...

graduate, Shi Mingda who was a long term employee of the factory and had become the factory manager decided along with several other employees to acquire the factory. The factory was restructured to a

joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareho ...

and renamed to Nantong Huada Microelectronics. In 1994, Nantong Huada Microelectronics entered a partnership with Fujitsu where it would transfer the technology to it to assemble logic chips, including

microcontroller A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...

s and linear integrated circuits, for consumer electronics. Originally a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

was suggested but rejected as Fujitsu wanted to try a partnership first. In 1997, Nantong Huada Microelectronics and Fujitsu established a joint venture named Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics (NFME) to assemble and test integrated circuit products. Nantong Huada Microelectronics held 60% to take lead in its management while Fujitsu held 40%. On 16 August 2007, NFME held its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

becoming a listed company on the

Shenzhen Stock Exchange The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE; ) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shenzhen, in the People's Republic of China. It is one of three stock exchanges operating independently in Mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Excha ...

. In October 2015,

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

agreed to sell the majority of its interests in two of its Asian manufacturing operations (

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

and

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

) to NFME for $371 million. The deal would involve spinning out the operations into a joint venture with NFME with NFME holding 85% and AMD holding 15%. 1,700 AMD workers at the two factories would become employees of the joint venture. In December 2016, NFME changed its name to Tongfu Microelectronics and removed the Fujitsu branding. In 2018, due to change in business strategy, Fujitsu sold its holdings in TFME to various Chinese stakeholders which included the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund. In May 2024, it was reported that ChangXin Memory Technologies was partnering with TFME to produce High Bandwidth Memory semiconductors to reduce foreign reliance. In January 2025, it was reported that TFME had started production.

References

External links

* {{Electronics industry in China AMD Fujitsu 1997 establishments in China 2007 initial public offerings Assembly and Test semiconductor companies Companies based in Jiangsu Companies listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Electronics companies established in 1997 Semiconductor companies of China

Background

See also

References

External links