[News] From Air Conditioners to SiC: China’s Gree Electric Accelerates Third-Gen Chip Push for EVs

Gree Electric, the Zhuhai-based appliance giant, is quietly making waves in the semiconductor sector. According to IT Home and EE Times China, the company has entered the third-generation semiconductor market, with its silicon carbide (SiC) chips, already mass-produced for home appliance applications, set to expand this year into solar energy storage, logistics vehicles, and new energy vehicles.

EE Times China points out that Gree’s journey in semiconductors began in 2010 with an IPM power module production line, expanded in 2018 with the founding of Gree Zero Boundary for chip design, and further in 2023 with Gree Electronics Components, handling SiC chip design, wafer production, packaging, and testing. By 2025, the company had sold over 300 million chips, the report notes. Today, Gree’s chip team numbers nearly 1,000 employees, with over 60% being technical staff, as per IT Home.

On the production front, Gree’s SiC chip factory reportedly broke ground in December 2022 and successfully achieved product line readiness by the end of 2023. Phase one of the plant is planned to produce 240,000 6-inch SiC wafers annually, providing the company with significant manufacturing capacity to support expansion into new energy sectors, EE Times China reports.

On the other hand, Eastmoney.com observes that Zhuhai Gree Electronics primarily operates as a foundry, meaning its focus is not on producing chips for its own use, but on providing manufacturing services to external design companies, following a fabless-foundry ecosystem model. According to the report, the company has already partnered with more than 20 chip design firms, demonstrating both production readiness and market recognition.

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(Photo credit: Gree)