The Tsinghua Unigroup booth at an expo in Beijing [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhongguancun-based chip giant Tsinghua Unigroup announced on May 15 that it will set up its new R&D center in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area.

With a planned floor area of 10,000 square meters and a total investment of 4.6 billion yuan ($722.2 million), the center will function as a platform for Tsinghua Unigroup and local enterprises to combine technology assets with industry resources.

Tsinghua Unigroup and Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area ink the deal on May 15. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

"We chose Chongqing mainly for its long-standing electronic information sector and large-scale, company-intensive and self-contained industrial chain," said Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, during the signing ceremony. 

Under their agreement, Tsinghua Unigroup will open two sub-centers for new generations of home-grown chips for use in mobile devices and digital televisions.

The digital television sub-center will be a global R&D headquarters for Tsinghua Unigroup to coordinate regional innovative forces. It's expected to build a strong research team with some 350 chip elites within five years.

The mobile device sub-center will enable Tsinghua Unigroup to win an upper hand in market competition against rivals like Qualcomm and MediaTek.

A state-backed subsidiary of Tsinghua University, China's top academy, Tsinghua Unigroup is the country's biggest manufacturer of integrated circuitry and a major provider of cloud computing services.