Thai company Alphatec Electronics Co of Bangkok, which got into the business by buying Signetics’ chip assembly operations from Philips Electronics NV, has ambitions to become a major servicer of the world’s chipmakers and according to Bloomberg Business News plans to invest $1,000m to become a major supplier of silicon wafers through new subsidiary SubMicron Technology Co. Although it is currently doing about $20m net on sales of $400m, it has rallied a group of investors, mainly Thai banks, to put up $800m, and already has chipmakers AT&T Corp, National Semiconductor Corp and Rockwell International Inc as advisors and potential customers. It also bought AT&T’s Thai phone manufacturing operations in June; last month it agreed a $75m chip assembly and test venture in Shanghai in which it holds 49% with Shanghai Hua Xu Microelectronics Corp, 45%, and Microchip Technology Inc, 4%.
