China’s tech self-sufficiency progress evident in these 2 companies

Chinese memory firms GigaDevice Semiconductor and Montage Technology have emerged as new heavyweights in the domestic semiconductor industry, as these companies founded by US-returned Chinese engineers capitalise on the global memory supercycle.

Since the two Shanghai-listed companies completed their dual listings in Hong Kong recently, investors have driven up the shares of GigaDevice and Montage by 151 per cent and 97 per cent, respectively.

The companies’ listings in January and February represent the rapid progress of China’s tech self-sufficiency initiative.

Notably, both companies are founded by Chinese engineers who previously worked in the US semiconductor industry.

At the centre of GigaDevice’s rise is Zhu Yiming, who also co-founded ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s largest DRAM (dynamic random access memory) maker. Zhu earned his master’s degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and spent nearly a decade in Silicon Valley before returning to Beijing in 2005 to launch GigaDevice.