China’s Top Chipmaker Loses Chairman in Latest Executive Exit

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s chairman has resigned about a year after formally assuming his role, marking the latest high-profile departure from a company rocked by US chip sanctions.

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Bloomberg News

Published Jul 17, 2023 • 1 minute read

(Bloomberg) — Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s chairman has resigned about a year after formally assuming his role, marking the latest high-profile departure from a company rocked by US chip sanctions.

Gao Yonggang quit because of a “job adjustment,” the company said in a Monday exchange filing. Gao, the former chief financial officer who became permanent chairman in March 2022, cedes his post to chemical industry and Communist Party veteran Liu Xunfeng, 58.

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SMIC is China’s most advanced chip manufacturer, a national champion that competes with the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in fabricating silicon. The Chinese company is among a handful of domestic players at the forefront of Beijing’s nationwide effort to combat American technology export curbs by developing local alternatives. It appeared to achieve breakthroughs in making chips using 7-nanometer nodes, a key threshold that Washington has tried to block China from reaching.

China’s largest contract chipmaker stressed in its filing Gao had no disagreement with the board, but didn’t say if he will stay at the company following his resignation.

His successor is a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory organization to the country’s parliament. The new chairman, a chemist-turned executive, holds or held several roles at state-backed energy firms such as Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. and the Huayi Group.

Gao is the latest in a line of senior executives to have left SMIC in past years as US blacklistings cut the Chinese firm off from advanced chip-making machines. Tudor Brown, a celebrated engineer who co-founded the British chip developer Arm Ltd., resigned from the board last year. In 2021, former chairman Zhou Zixue quit for health reasons. Months later, Vice-Chairman Chiang Shang-Yi resigned less than a year after joining the Shanghai-based company.

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