Chinese GPU Maker XCT Faces Financial Crisis and Legal Troubles

[AleksandarK]

Xiangdixian Computing Technology (XCT), once hailed as China's answer to NVIDIA at its peak, is now grappling with severe financial difficulties and legal challenges. The company, which has developed its own line of GPUs based on the Tianjun chips, recently admitted that its progress in "development of national GPU has not yet fully met the company's expectations and is facing certain market adjustment pressures." Despite producing two desktop and one workstation GPU model, XCT has been forced to address rumors of its closure. The company has undergone significant layoffs, but it claims to have retained key research and development staff essential for GPU advancement. Adding to XCT's woes, investors have initiated legal proceedings against the company's founder, Tang Zhimin, claiming he failed to deliver on his commitment to raising 500 million Yuan in Series B funding.

Among the complainants is the state-owned Jiangsu Zhongde Services Trade Industry Investment Fund, which has filed a lawsuit against three companies under Zhimin's control. Further complicating matters, Capitalonline Data Service is reportedly suing XCT for unpaid debts totaling 18.8 million Yuan. There are also claims that the company's bank accounts have been frozen, potentially impeding its ability to continue operations. The situation is further complicated by allegations of corruption within China's semiconductor sector, with reports of executives misappropriating investment funds. With XCT fighting for survival through restructuring efforts, its fate hangs in the balance. Without securing additional funding soon, the company may be forced to close its doors, which will blow China's GPU aspirations.



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[Flanker]

Who? I loosely follow tech industry in China for work reasons but this name rings no bells to me

 

[Vayra86]

On the eve of a tech push by Xi, this happens? Okay. They've been at it for awhile so one would think that even a poor result is not worth throwing away, but who knows.

Its going to be wild the coming years seeing China's struggle to get advanced chips going by itself, I reckon. But this, alongside the economical woes do show us China's pockets run deep, but are no where near infinite as we've come to think. Irony has it that we're still looking at China most not for its production capacity (can always move that elsewhere) but rather its raw resources. Not exactly the high value markets China is after. One might start getting the idea Xi's masterplan isn't really coming to fruition, like, at all. I'm very curious to see what's going to happen in the EU with, for example, their EV companies.

 

[AusWolf]

"development of national GPU has not yet fully met the company's expectations and is facing certain market adjustment pressures." - What a nice way to say we're going down because our GPU is dogshit!

 

[64K]

One step forwards, two steps back. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese Govt resolves this. I don't see them letting their GPU aspirations go down the shitter without a serious fight.

 

[THANATOS]

So what If It went bankrupt?
How many GPU makers failed so far in history? Only a few survived to this day.
Research and patents will be bought by someone else, workers will move to some other company and development will continue.
China won't stop development, US sanctions showed them they need to develop their own technologies.
Actually other countries with the means should or will do the same instead of being at the mercy of US government.
Why EU is not doing the same is baffling to me, instead they pay billions so foreign companies will build a plant in EU(Intel, TSMC).

 

[AusWolf]

So what If It went bankrupt?
How many GPU makers failed so far in history? Only a few survived to this day.
Research and patents will be bought by someone else, workers will move to some other company and development will continue.

It's a Chinese company, they probably don't even have patents of their own that aren't stolen... khm... "borrowed" from other companies.

 

[R0H1T]

China won't stop development, US sanctions showed them they need to develop their own technologies.

Imagination tech is already owned by a Chinese company, outside Intel/AMD/Nvidia & of course ARM they probably have the biggest GPU related IP/patents out there. So no they don't really need to do that "shady" stuff anymore, which doesn't mean that they cannot or will not do it but they atm don't need to.

And just an FYI Apple still licenses their GPU(?) IP from them.

 

[Wirko]

On the eve of a tech push by Xi, this happens? Okay. They've been at it for awhile so one would think that even a poor result is not worth throwing away, but who knows.

Its going to be wild the coming years seeing China's struggle to get advanced chips going by itself, I reckon. But this, alongside the economical woes do show us China's pockets run deep, but are no where near infinite as we've come to think. Irony has it that we're still looking at China most not for its production capacity (can always move that elsewhere) but rather its raw resources. Not exactly the high value markets China is after. One might start getting the idea Xi's masterplan isn't really coming to fruition, like, at all. I'm very curious to see what's going to happen in the EU with, for example, their EV companies.

Yes. Is China a capitalist country? For the intents and purposes of this discussion, it certainly is (and in the article above, you could easily substitute UK or something else for China) . Capitalist countries throw public money at the problem if there's technology of strategic importance involved, and this trend is only accelerating. So either XCT's patents are of very little value, or the bailout capacity of the govt. is close to its limits.