Tsinghua Unigroup, one of China’s leading chipmakers, has hired Japanese semiconductor industry veteran Yukio Sakamoto as a senior vice president and also head of the company’s Japan unit.
Sakamoto, 72, served as chief executive of once-leading Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory, which was established by combining the memory chip units of NEC and Hitachi.
Sakamoto led Elpida for over a decade, from 2002 to 2013, successfully listing the company’s shares on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2004. But the financial crisis and falling chip prices hurt the company’s finances, eventually leading to its bankruptcy in 2012 and its acquisition by U.S. peer Micron Technology the following year.
Besides Sakamoto’s experience, the Chinese government-backed Unigroup likely aims to put his connections in Japan and beyond to work as it expands its reach.
Pay back to United States.