[News] Chinese Foundry Giant Hua Hong Appoints Former Intel VP as New President

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As 2025 unfolds, a personnel shake-up has taken place in Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second largest foundry. According to the company’s announcement and a report from Chinese media outlet ICsmart, it has named Peng Bai, former global vice president of Intel, as the new president, effective from January 1, 2025.

Following former chairman Zhang Suxin’s resignation in late December, 2024, Hua Hong’s executive director, Junjun Tang, has been appointed as the chairman of the board and chairman of the nomination committee, effective December 31, 2024, as per the report. Therefore, Tang has stepped down from the position of the company’s president to focus on his new duty.

According to Hua Hong, Bai, currently 62, has over 30 years of experience in the field of integrated circuits manufacturing. Notably, before taking over as Hua Hong’s president, Peng Bai was elected as Intel’s corporate vice president in 2016, according to Intel’s press release.

At that time, he was also the co-director of Logic Technology Development in Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group, which is responsible for the development and transfer of next-gen silicon technologies that will produce future Intel microprocessors and SoCs.

As TSMC keeps making strides in advanced nodes, China’s SMIC and Hua Hong have been pressuring their foundry rivals with competitive pricing on mature nodes. As per Economic Daily News, prices for 12-inch wafers from Chinese foundries have been slashed by as much as 40% compared to the offer from Taiwanese companies lately.

According to TrendForce, Hua Hong secured orders for peripheral ICs for new smartphones and PCs, along with consumer inventory replenishment demand, which boosted the capacity utilization of its subsidiaries HLMC and HHGrace. The group’s overall revenue grew by 12.8% QoQ in the third quarter of 2024, reaching a market share of 2.2% and ranking it sixth.

It is worth noting that in December, 2024, Hua Hong’s 12-inch production line at its manufacturing base (Phase II) in Wuxi has started production, marking a new milestone in the company’s advanced specialty process capabilities, the ICsmart report indicates. According to the report, the project focuses on automotive-grade chip manufacturing, with a 12-inch specialty process production line that has a monthly capacity of 83,000 wafers.

Read more

• [News] SMIC Reports Record Q3 Revenue, Cautious on Expansion Amid Overcapacity Warnings
• [News] SMIC, Hua Hong Reportedly Pressure Taiwan Foundries with up to 40% Discount on Mature Nodes

(Photo credit: Hua Hong)