China's Gree can now make its own chips, local media reports

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese home appliance manufacturer Gree Electric has developed its own chips, Chinese local media reported on Monday citing its chairwoman, six years after the firm embarked on efforts to do so.

Dong Mingzhu, told news portal Sina.com that the company had achieved capabilities in chip research, design, and manufacturing, all without funding support from the Chinese government. She did not detail what kind of chips Gree was now able to make.

In 2018, Gree set up a subsidiary to design chips for air conditioners and the company announced that it wanted to move into making more smart home products. At the time, Dong said that Gree spent 4 billion yuan ($549.45 million) a year on buying chips for its air conditioners.

This year in March, Dong announced that Gree is in the process of building a Silicon Carbide (SiC) chip factory, with an anticipated start to production in June.

Other Chinese smartphone and appliance makers such as Xiaomi and Midea have in recent years also developed their own chips in pursuit of self-reliance and supply chain resilience.

($1 = 7.2800 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Sophie Yu, Liam Mo, Brenda Goh; Editing by Michael Perry)

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