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Tech war: major Micron client in China retracts Shanghai IPO application three days before Beijing opened cybersecurity investigation into US firm
- Solid-state drive maker Memblaze ditched its Shanghai IPO in late March, just three days before memory chip supplier Micron was investigated by Beijing
- The firm was said to have also spent tens of millions of US dollars to stock up on Micron chips under ‘no-refund’ terms, according to sources
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Che Panin Beijing
Chinese solid-state drive (SSD) maker Beijing Memblaze Technology Co, a major buyer of memory chips from Micron Technology, retracted its Shanghai public listing in late March, just days before Beijing opened a cybersecurity investigation into the US company.
While there is no evidence that directly links the aborted initial public offering of Memblaze to Micron, the Chinese firm’s move to ditch its listing was in proximity – three days – to the US firm being put under investigation by the Cyber Security Review Office under the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on national security grounds.
Storage solutions provider Memblaze, which makes enterprise-class SSDs, was said to have also spent tens of millions of US dollars to stock up on Micron memory chips under “no-refund” terms, according to people familiar with the situation.
Those moves by Memblaze reflect how Beijing’s actions against Micron, including the de facto ban on the domestic sale of its products, could impact some local companies.
China’s top server makers, including Inspur Group and Lenovo Group, have asked suppliers to suspend shipments of modules containing memory chips made by Micron, according to a South China Morning Post report on Friday, citing a supplier with knowledge of the situation.
A media representative of Memblaze declined to comment on Friday, while the company did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
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