On March 7, 2001, ON Semiconductor announced plans to invest approximately $100 million in China, combining an expansion of its Leshan manufacturing joint venture with a planned analog IC design center in Shanghai. The announcement described a proposed six-inch, 0.5-micron wafer line and an initial six-engineer design team; those were targets, not proof that every project was completed as announced.
What ON Semiconductor announced in 2001
At an announcement in Beijing on March 7, 2001, ON Semiconductor outlined a China expansion spanning manufacturing, engineering and sales. The company said it planned to invest approximately $100 million. The centerpiece was an expansion of Leshan Phoenix Semiconductor Co. (LPSC) in Leshan, Sichuan Province, alongside a new analog IC design center in Shanghai. The contemporary EE Times report described plans for additional Chinese design centers and two sales offices as well.
- Manufacturing: A proposed six-inch wafer line using a 0.5-micron process to make analog ICs, with stated capacity of 8,000 wafers per month.
- Products: Power-management and other analog ICs, expanding on the discrete semiconductors already made at Leshan. The announcement also pointed to future broadband products.
- Engineering: A Shanghai analog design center expected to begin with six design engineers.
- Growth targets: ON projected that production would quadruple by the end of 2002. This was a company forecast, not a reported result.
The proposed wafer line would add front-end fabrication—making circuits on wafers—to an operation that already handled semiconductor production and back-end processing. The planned expansion was therefore broader than opening a sales office, but the stated investment and capacity figures should be read as announced plans.
Leshan Phoenix was the existing manufacturing base
LPSC began in 1995 as a joint venture between Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector and Leshan Radio. After ON Semiconductor spun out of Motorola in 1999, ON became the venture’s largest shareholder. The 2001 report gave the ownership split as ON Semiconductor 51%, Leshan Radio 39% and Motorola 10%; those are historical figures, not the current ownership structure.
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The Leshan site, in Sichuan in western China, already produced surface-mount discrete semiconductors used in products such as mobile phones and pagers. The report said the operation employed about 1,600 people and produced roughly 7 billion devices in 2000. ON’s Asia-Pacific president characterized the plant as among Asia’s most cost-competitive; that is an attributed company assessment, not an independently established ranking.
An established site offered a foundation for adding capacity: existing facilities, workers and packaging and test operations could support a wider product range. Pairing wafer fabrication with assembly and test can also reduce the need to move work between distant production locations. The announcement did not, however, establish that every planned stage or capacity target was achieved.
Why the proposed 0.5-micron line mattered then
The planned line was specified for six-inch wafers and a 0.5-micron process. In 2001, that process could serve commercially important analog and power-management products. It should not be mistaken for a leading-edge digital-logic fab even by the standards of that period, and 0.5 micron is not an advanced process by 2026 standards.
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Analog chips manage real-world electrical signals and power, rather than primarily processing digital logic. Their designs can serve long-lived applications across communications and consumer electronics. ON’s plan connected this product focus to demand for power management in mobile and computing devices, while the existing Leshan operation supplied a manufacturing base and back-end capabilities.
The 8,000-wafer-per-month figure was the proposed line’s stated target capacity. It is not evidence of actual monthly output, and the separate projection of fourfold production growth by the end of 2002 was likewise a forecast.
Shanghai design plans and engineering talent
A design center and a fab do different work. Design engineers develop circuits and product variants; a fab manufactures those circuits on wafers. Assembly and test package devices and check their performance, while sales offices support customer relationships. ON’s announcement put all of these functions into a broader localization plan, without making them interchangeable.
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The Shanghai center was expected to start with six design engineers. ON also discussed a series of design centers and two sales offices elsewhere in China. It planned workforce-development programs with the University of Science and Technology of China and Zhejiang University, aiming to grow the pool of analog IC engineers.
Local design capability could help engineers work closer to customers and adapt products to their requirements. But specialized engineering talent takes time to develop, and a university partnership or a stated initial headcount does not establish how many centers opened or how large they became.
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ON cited China’s expanding electronics and semiconductor market as a reason to locate more manufacturing and engineering there. The demand areas named in the announcement included mobile phones, pagers, laptops, personal digital assistants, broadband equipment and communications products. Power-management ICs linked the proposed analog portfolio to those devices.
ON’s CEO predicted in 2001 that China would become the world’s third-largest semiconductor market within two to three years and the second-largest within ten years. That was an executive forecast made at the time, not a verified present-day ranking; the announcement did not specify a market measure that would make the prediction directly comparable across later sources.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What can be established about Leshan today
onsemi’s 2025 Form 10-K describes Leshan-Phoenix Semiconductor Company Limited as an assembly-and-test operation and says onsemi owns 80% of the joint venture. It reports that onsemi purchased approximately 80% of Leshan’s production capacity in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025, and was committed to approximately 80% of expected capacity in 2026. The filing also identifies possible increased costs and trade restrictions linked to U.S.-China geopolitical tensions. See the 2025 Form 10-K.
That filing supports the conclusion that Leshan remains relevant to onsemi’s manufacturing footprint. It does not establish whether the 2001 six-inch fab was completed exactly as described, whether it reached 8,000 wafers per month, or whether the Shanghai design center and additional centers opened on the announced schedule. It also does not verify whether the projected fourfold production increase by the end of 2002 occurred.
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From expansion to manufacturing-footprint management
The 2001 announcement framed China as a place to add production, engineering and customer-facing capacity. onsemi’s more recent public messaging also emphasizes managing the shape and cost of its global manufacturing network. In a July 7, 2026 announcement, the company described its “Fab Right” strategy as an ongoing effort to optimize its footprint and improve cost structure, alongside agreements to divest two facilities. The announcement is available from onsemi Investor Relations.
This is a changed strategic context, not evidence that onsemi reversed its China plans. The current filing presents both the continuing role of Leshan and the added exposure to trade restrictions and geopolitical tensions. The 2001 story is best understood as an early localization milestone; its specific construction, staffing and output promises should remain distinct from what current disclosures verify.
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