Chinese government-owned Tsinghua Unigroup, having failed to buy Micron, is going to make its own memory chips.

The WSJ reports that TU will spend $12bn-plus to build a fab and make acquisitions. It's being positioned as part of China's long term goal of being less dependent on Western technology.

The acquisitions will be made by a newly set up subsidiary called Tongfang Guoxin Electronics (TGE), which has a filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The report suggests it could acquire IP needed to manufacture memory chips. The TGE filing said it would raise $12.6bn in a private placement with funds coming from TU and TU chairman Zhao Weiguo's investment company.

TU is not a listed company and is part of the Chinese state-owned Tsinghua Holdings.

TU is investing $600m in Powertech Technology in Taiwan. It will have a 25 per cent holding, the largest one, and Powertech will be Tsinghua's chip assembly and testing partner.

El Reg expects China to try to set up its own NAND manufacturing facility as well. ®