Abstract:
Russia’s newly formed United Microelectronics Company (ОМК) is considering acquiring shares in a number of Chinese semiconductor factories to circumvent the shortcomings of local manufacturing capabilities.
According to people familiar with the matter, the acquisition targets are not large and well-known manufacturers, but some "smaller and less conspicuous" factories.
At present, the most advanced process in Russia is only 90 nanometers, which is still the technical level in 2003.
In contrast, TSMC and Samsung have mass-produced 2nm chips by the end of 2025, and mainland Chinese manufacturers have also advanced to 7nm and 5nm based on 14nm.It is worth mentioning that sources emphasized that
the amount of shares acquired is not important. The key is to arrange an agreement so that one or more production lines of the Chinese factory can exclusively serve Russian needs.
This means that Russia hopes to obtain stable production capacity quotas as a shareholder rather than directly controlling corporate operations.Analysts pointed out that the biggest benefit of becoming a shareholder is to obtain a clear queue position and predictable prices. This is a pragmatic path for the Russian chip industry, which has long been subject to production capacity bottlenecks.
ОМК was established in January 2026 and plans to integrate core Russian microelectronics companies such as Mikron, Angstrem, and NM-Tech.
According to the plan, ОМК plans to obtain a total investment of 1 trillion rubles (approximately RMB 78.9 billion) by 2030, of which 750 billion rubles (approximately RMB 59.2 billion) will be funded by the government, and the remaining 250 billion rubles (approximately RMB 19.7 billion) will be provided by Sberbank.
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