Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, Sep 15 (TMTPOST) – Ren Kai, vice president of Sino IC Capital and senior executive of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund – known in China's semiconductor industry as the "Big Fund", was detained by authorities on Thursday morning and is under investigation.

Ren Kai, 50 years old, graduated from Harbin Engineering University with a bachelor's degree in industrial foreign trade.

According to public information, during his 19 years of service at China Development Bank, Ren Kai has long been engaged in the evaluation of loan projects and investment business in the field of equipment and electronics. During his work, he led his team to complete hundreds of major project evaluations, with an average annual evaluation commitment of more than 100 billion yuan ($14 billion), and a cumulative commitment of more than 30 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) in loans in the field of integrated circuits.

The "Big Fund" was launched in 2014 with a capital of 138.7 billion RMB ($20.54 billion) to accelerate the growth of China's home-grown semiconductor industry. It focuses on investing in the integrated circuit chip manufacturing industry, including chip design, packaging, and testing. As the sole manager, Sino IC Capital undertakes the investment business of the fund.

Against the backdrop of an unfolding anti-corruption strom that is sweeping the country's semiconductor industry, before Ren Kai, the "Big Fund" and its management company have six executives suspected of serious disciplinary violations who were taken away for investigation.

The big fund raised a total of 138.72 billion yuan ($19.42 billion) in the first phase, which was invested in 2018. Among the investment targets, chip manufacturing accounted for 67%, design accounted for 17%, packaging and testing accounted for 10%, equipment and materials accounted for 6%.

The invested companies included Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, Shanghai Huahong Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd and so on.