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China’s 2000 Plan to Fund an IC Design Complex in Shanghai

In March 2000, Shanghai announced a publicly backed center for IC design firms, with shared tools and multiproject wafer services. Its investment and revenue figures were plans and forecasts, not confirmed outcomes.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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In March 2000, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai municipal government announced a publicly backed center intended to give local integrated-circuit (IC) design firms shared workspace and technical services. EE Times reported an initial local-government construction investment of $12 million and plans for shared design tools, test equipment and multiproject wafer services. The figures describe an announcement and projections at the time—not verified results.

What Shanghai announced in March 2000

EE Times reported on 8 March 2000 that the Ministry of Science and Technology and Shanghai’s municipal government had joined to open the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Center (ICC). The report called it China’s first industrial park dedicated to IC design. It said 13 design houses, including a joint venture with the Beijing-based China IC Design Center, had moved into the park. EE Times’ contemporary report is the source for the announcement and occupant count.

The proposal was to build a shared industrial base for chip-design work, rather than a semiconductor fabrication plant. The distinction matters: the facilities described were aimed at design firms and their prototyping and low-volume production needs.

What the planned center was meant to provide

Workspace and shared equipment

According to EE Times, the local government initially invested $12 million in construction. The planned facility included more than 215,000 square feet of office space offered at low rents, along with design tools, workstations and test equipment that companies could rent at low cost. These are descriptions in the 2000 report; they do not establish that every service was subsequently delivered or operated as described.

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Multiproject wafers for prototypes

The center’s multiproject wafer (MPW) capability was intended to let several compatible designs share wafer processing. In principle, sharing that processing could reduce layout and foundry costs for prototypes and low-volume products. The report also described plans for designer training and a “product design on a chip” project using venture capital. These, too, were announced intentions, not evidence of later outcomes.

How to read the investment and revenue figures

The 2000 report distinguished an initial construction investment from forward-looking targets. Neither projected figure should be read as a confirmed result.

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Figure What it referred to What is established
$12 million Initial local-government investment in construction Reported by EE Times in March 2000 as an investment made for the project.
About $130 million over the following five years Investors’ announced plan for investment in the ICC A plan reported by EE Times in 2000; the report does not establish that the amount was fully spent.
$250 million in total IC and system revenues by 2005 The center’s revenue projection, as reported by EE Times A forecast made in 2000; the reviewed sources do not verify that it was achieved.

All three figures come from EE Times’ 8 March 2000 report. The $130 million was a planned investment over five years, while the $250 million was a projected revenue target by 2005; they describe different things and neither is a verified outcome.

What later sources say about ICC

The Shanghai IC Technology & Industry Promotion Center’s official history says it was established in February 2000 by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission and moved under the Shanghai Academy of Science in January 2010. It describes the organization as a national IC design industrialization base and a “Xinhuo” entrepreneurship and innovation platform. The official history provides institutional context, but does not document a complete organizational chain linking every part of the original industrial park to the present center. ICC’s official website describes its history and services.

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The center currently lists services including MPW, engineering-lot and volume tape-out, EDA and intellectual-property resources, RFID and high-speed signal-integrity testing, training and industry research. Its EDA cloud-service portal describes shared EDA services for domestic small and medium-sized IC design firms and evaluation of domestic EDA tools. That portal is a later service description; it is not evidence that a cloud platform was part of the 2000 offering.

The announcement in Shanghai’s wider semiconductor context

The 2000 EE Times report placed ICC within Shanghai’s broader electronics and semiconductor development and discussed regional production capacity, manufacturers and overseas back-end investments. Those statements describe the period covered by that report, not present-day conditions. A 2026 Shanghai municipal industry guide describes a broader city-level IC ecosystem, including specialized parks and design and manufacturing support; it is not a record of ICC’s individual performance or evidence for the center’s 2005 revenue forecast. The Shanghai municipal government’s industry guide concerns the city’s wider, current ecosystem.

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Why the proposal mattered

For design companies, shared equipment and wafer processing were intended to lower the cost of turning a chip design into a prototype or a low-volume product. Low-rent offices and training were part of the same effort to support a local design industry. The proposal’s significance, as reported in 2000, lies in that planned shared infrastructure and public backing—not in revenue or investment outcomes that the reviewed sources do not confirm.

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