Woodson, whose main entity is Shanghai Wusheng Semiconductor Group, was liquidated, according to a notice released on June 6 by the city’s Pudong New Area People’s Court.
That marked the end for the firm, which was once an emerging star in China’s semiconductor industry.
Established at a time when the tech war between Washington and Beijing started to heat up, Woodson was focused on manufacturing integrated circuits for LCD/OLED display drivers, flash memory chips and contact image sensors for cameras.
The company at the time touted that its team had “multiple core experts with an experience of more than 20 years”.
Another project announced in April 2021 said Woodson was also planning to build a research, development and manufacturing complex worth about 18 billion yuan that was to be completed in five years.
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Biden’s China tech policy goal: a 10 year handicap
Biden’s China tech policy goal: a 10 year handicap
Four months later, several Chinese media reported that Samsung global executive vice-president Zhang Duanduan, the South Korean company’s first foreign high-level female manager, would join Woodson. Jowei Dun, former TSMC engineering department manager was also supposed to join, according to a report by Chinese media The Paper, which cited an unnamed source.
Zhang could not be reached for comment. Dun, whose LinkedIn account did no contain anything related to Woodson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Hit by a cash crunch, Woodson was subsequently sued by clients and suppliers over the past few years, according to data from company registry Qichacha.
Woodson founder and legal representative Zhang Jialiang was blacklisted as a debtor in 2022, which led to restrictions on luxury spending.
The company’s steady demise showed that it failed to receive fresh government subsidies to keep its operations going. Its plant in Nanjing, for example, was to receive subsidies only when certain requirements were met, such as its equipment yield rate reaching 98 per cent, according to The Paper, citing the unnamed source.
