Tsinghua Unigroup has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Bank of Nanjing to facilitate the kickoff of the construction of a US$30 billion memory chip factory to be built by the chipmaker in Nanjing.

The memory chip factory is targeting a monthly capacity of 100,000 wafers in phase one of the development which will be used to produce DRAM and 3D-NAND flash chips. The plant's capacity will be doubled to 200,000 wafers when its second-phase expansion project is completed.

Meanwhile, Tsinghua Unigroup also targets an annual chip production value of US$4.8 billion during the phase-one development and raises the amount to US$10 billion in phase two.

As a business partner of Tsignhua Unigroup, the Bank of Nanjing is obligated to provide high-quality, efficient and comprehensive financial services to the chipmaker so as to push the development of financial technology and the upgrade of overall economy, according to the bank.

In addition to the memory chip plant, Tsinghua Unigroup also announced earlier it would invest roughly another CNY30 billion in building an "international city" including commercial buildings, apartments, R&D facilities and international schools for foreign employees.