If the contemplated investment is completed, the funds raised by SJsemi will be put towards expediting the establishment of China's first 12" bumping production line, which is expected to expand the scale of production, improve its advanced manufacturing capabilities and improve China's overall chip manufacturing ecosystem.

Located in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province, SJsemi was founded in August 2014 through a joint venture between SMIC and Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. (JCET). SJsemi will serve as the world's first pure play Middle-End-Of-Line (MEOL) entity that focuses on advanced bumping production.

Complementing nearby advanced back-end assembly infrastructure, SJsemi will be an important key to forming a local integrated circuit (IC) ecosystem, providing a convenient one-stop service to supply high quality and efficient chips for local and international customers, as well as help strengthen their global competiveness. Within one year of its establishment, SJsemi has already successfully commissioned its production process and passed production qualification and is expected to go into mass production at the beginning of 2016.

Dong Cui, CEO of SJsemi, commented: "We'd like to thank SMIC, CICIIF and Qualcomm Incorporated for all of their support. This round of investment, if completed, will help expand our production capacity and accelerate the construction progress while demonstrating the strong confidence our investors have in the future of SJsemi. This will help bridge SMIC's 28nm process technology and JCET's back-end packaging and assembly capabilities, to create an advanced IC manufacturing supply chain in China. ”

“Qualcomm's intention to invest in SJsemi demonstrates recognition that SJsemi's technology, quality and operation systems meet the requirements of international customers. This bolsters our confidence that we can expand and grow quickly. We are very pleased to have strong backing from the CICIIF, which gives us the resources to develop into a world-class pure play MEOL company. We will not only serve the customers for their China strategy, but also provide a global competitive advantage and added values for customers."

"We are really excited that within one year SJsemi was able to make such a significant progress towards achieving mass production next year. This will provide huge support in the development of SMIC's 28nm technology and more advanced technologies." Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of SMIC said.

"It is important for SMIC to develop China's advanced supply chain and continuously improve our one-stop service so that we can provide high value-added products and service to our customers. In the future we will continue to support SJsemi's development."