Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

Zhuhai-based household appliance giant Gree Electric Appliances is moving ahead with its ambition plans to develop its own microchips and attain supply-chain self-sufficiency via indirect access to Dutch chip maker Nexperia.

It plans to invest 3 billion yuan ($436 million) to take a 10.98 percent stake in Shanghai-listed smartphone contractor Wingtech Technology, helping the latter gain control over Nexperia through acquisition.

Gree was eager for a chance to enter the field long before this deal came along. The company spends almost $640 million a year purchasing imported chips, which air-conditioner makers in China are unable to produce domestically.

Customers tour Gree's air-conditioner production lines. 

To address that, Gree invested 1 billion yuan ($145 million) last August to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary that focuses on the research and development of semiconductors, integrated circuits, as well as electronic devices and components.

The goal of having self-developed chips is not aimed at taking up a slice of a potentially lucrative market or starting a price war, but is about bringing better products to clients, said Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of Gree in a stockholders' conference earlier this year.

Gree chairwoman Dong Mingzhu [Photos courtesy Xinhua]

Wingtech Technology is a pacesetter in the world's original design mobile phone manufacturing industry, and is valued for its R&D capability for smart terminals.

Nexperia is a world leading supplier of standard semiconductors. Its products are widely used in automobiles, wearable devices, consumer electronics, and computers. Huawei, Bosch, Apple, Samsung, Dell, HP, and other renowned enterprises are its clients.

Gree will use Wingtech's research capacity to build its 5G mobile network industry chain, as well as achieve breakthroughs in smart homes, smart equipment, and telecom equipment, while expanding into the semiconductor sector with the upstream reach of Nexperia.