Commenting on the latest investment, Yoram Oron, President of Vertex Venture Capital Israel said: "In addition to its financial potential, this investment would expand Vertex's network of contacts in China as well as provide Vertex's fabless semiconductors portfolio companies access to the manufacturing services of one of the largest chip manufacturing corporations in the world."
SMIC's three 8 inch Fabs in Shanghai have now reached a production capacity of 40,000 wafers per month. The funds raised in the latest round will be mainly used to expand the company's Shanghai facilities and build a new a 12 inch facility in Beijing. Analysts expect SMIC to be the fourth largest chip manufacturer in the world by 2004.
Established in April 2000, SMIC is China's most advanced foundry, providing IC manufacturing at 0.35-micron, 0.25-micron, 0.18-micron technologies, as well as 0.13-micron copper backend services.
Vertex Venture Capital Israel manages $650 million in venture capital in Israel and Europe and is part of the International Vertex Venture Holdings (VVH). VVH manages over $1 billion in venture capital and has offices in the USA, UK, Israel, Denmark, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Vertex Venture Capital Israel invests in seed and early stage Israeli technology-intensive companies with real market growth potential and promising entrepreneurs.
Vertex Venture Capital Israel announced that it has invested $5 million in Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), the largest and most advanced foundry in China. The investment was part of a third financing round for SMIC, in which it raised a total of $630 million. Existing shareholders include Shanghai Industrial Holdings Limited, Goldman Sachs, H&Q Asia Pacific Limited, Walden International, Temasek and a Singapore consortium led by Vertex management. New investors participating in the round included New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Oak Investment Partners, Beida Microelectronics Investment Ltd, (Hong Kong) and other strategic investors.