Tsinghua Unigroup, the world's third largest mobile phone chip manufacturer and a subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings Co Ltd, along with local funders in Hubei province, has invested in a national memorizer base project in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Construction began on the project on December 30, 2016 in an area of 131.2 hectares at Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone. With a total investment of $24 billion, it will specialize in producing memory chips. The first phase of the project is expected to complete construction and put into use in 2018 and the whole project will be finished in 2020, with the total output expected to reach 300,000 pieces per month and the annual production value to exceed $10 billion. The project will include three 3D NAND Flash FAB plants, one research and development building and supporting facilities.

The memorizer base project will boost the development of integrated circuit industry in Wuhan city and even in Hubei province, drive the economic transformation and upgrading in China's central region and push integrated circuit industry to a higher level, said officials at Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and National Development and Reform Commission.

Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, introduces the construction of the national memorizer base to Liu Lihua, vice minister of Ministry of National Industry and Information Technology.

Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, introduces the project. 

Zhao Weiguo said the project is different from others in the IC memory chip industry because of its scale and business model. The project will witness China's integrated circuit memory chip industry make breakthrough in scale development while it also explores a new model to integrate national policies, local support, and market-orientation operation. In addition, the project is the largest one in investment scale for China's IC industry, for Hubei province, and in China.

Long Zhengcai, executive vice mayor of Wuhan City, addresses the ground-breaking ceremony. 

Sun Wei, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission's High Technology Industry Department, delivers a speech at the ceremony.

Liu Lihua, vice minister of Ministry of National Industry and Information Technology, speaks at the ceremony. 

Xu Kezhen, vice governor of Hubei Province, announces the start of the project construction. 

IC, also known as integrated circuit, is the core of the information and technology industry and a crucial element in national economic development and industrial and information security. As the most representative part of the IC industry, the memory chips' market share is expected to leap to 45 percent from its current share of over 25 percent. 

The project is also expected to boost the entire chip industrial chain, including design, packaging, and manufacturing, filling the blank in the Chinese memorizer field and supporting industrial and economic development.