The Fleeting Possibility of Merging the World’s Largest Chip Manufacturer in 2017: The Pain of Chinese Chip Industry

This article examines a possible Chinese semiconductor industry’s merger and acquisition in 2017, the year before the Sino-US trade war and US high-tech sanctions against China. The feasibility of a merger between Tsinghua Unigroup and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is thoroughly examined as well as their development history and the current financial standing. The financial data collected form the two companies’ annual report was analyzed using multiple corporate valuating models. We discovered that the industrial policy and financial reports in 2017 favored the merger, but the combination ultimately collapsed, which was quite a pity for Chinese chip sector. The research contributes to an in-depth comprehension of China’s semiconductor business and serves as a model for future financial analyses of comparable sectors.