Hon Hai may seek a stake in DNeX for 8 inches of production capacity.

Hon Hai is in talks to acquire a stake in Dagang Nexchange (DNeX), a Malaysian technology company, with the ultimate goal of expanding the 8-inch wafer production line, according to people familiar with the matter.

In February, Hon Hai bid with DNeX for SilTerra, a Malaysian 8-inch fab, but lost to DNeX's team with Beijing Shengshi Investment, which successfully acquired SilTerra for 273 million ringgit ($66 million). Hon Hai said at the time that it was still looking for opportunities to buy semiconductor factories in Southeast Asia.

It is important to note that DNeX currently holds a 60 per cent stake in SilTerra after the acquisition was completed in February. Hon Hai will take a minority stake in DNeX to help DNeX expand its wafer manufacturing business, the person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. At present, the shareholding negotiation is still in progress, and the possibility of failure of the negotiation cannot be ruled out.

People in the supply chain commented that despite the successful acquisition of SilTerra, the DNeX team still needs an experienced semiconductor team to help operate the 8-inch factory in Malaysia, and Hon Hai's extensive experience in semiconductors is exactly what the DNeX team needs.

In response to the acquisition rumors, Hon Hai said on the 27th that it would not comment on the market rumors. But it is worth mentioning that Hon Hai Chairman Liu Yangwei has previously said that he is indeed interested in bidding for an 8-inch factory in Malaysia, but it is also possible to use different ways of cooperation.

A representative for DNeX said the company had been open to discussions with strategic partners and investors, but could not comment on any specific discussions.

Data show that Silterra8 inch production capacity of about 3-46000 pieces / month. Some people in the industry have pointed out that the global production capacity of 8-inch factories is scarce. From a strategic point of view, investing in SilTerra 8-inch plants, especially SilTerra's non-mainland production capacity, can help Hon Hai's IC design company and Hon Hai IC suppliers and system customers.

Since last year, as the "lack of core shortage" has gradually spread in the global industry, Hon Hai has gradually accelerated its layout in the semiconductor industry. At the same time, Hon Hai is looking for new growth points across the border in many areas such as electric vehicles, which has also increased its demand for chips.

It should be noted that according to earlier reports, after market rumors that Tesla was interested in buying the 6-inch fab of Nor Flash giant Wang Hong, Liu Yangwei confirmed that the team did "express interest" to Wang Hong.

On the semiconductor closed test, Liu Yangwei said that Hon Hai has two teams responsible for closed testing, one is the signal core. Second, the S business group of Hon Hai Group, which is located in the high-level sealing and testing plant in Qingdao, will be in mass production by the end of this year, mainly for the closed testing needs of new products for high-level applications such as 5G and artificial intelligence.

With regard to the cooperation with Guoju on the small IC, Liu Yangwei said that the cooperation between the two sides is mainly in the operation of the channel, and the goal of design and production is the small IC, because the manpower of the IC design is limited, and the small IC uses 8-inch and 6-inch devices, so the investment is not so huge.