In addition, many international incubators, such as the world famous Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab), have been established in the city, bringing more and more foreign innovative projects and teams.

It also made Forbes' Asia's Fab 50 List of Companies in 2015.

The staff association at Newport Wafer Fab sent a letter to Shapps on Monday to argue that their livelihoods had been placed at risk after he ordered last week that Nexperia, which is owned by Chinese company Wingtech, must sell at least 86 percent of its stake in the plant due to alleged national security concerns, Sky News reported.

He said SMIC has begun construction of its Shanghai fab plant in early 2022, and the Beijing and Shenzhen fabs are expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.

"Building new capacity takes time－for a new fab, more than 2.5 years," said Ondrej Burkacky, a senior partner and co-leader of the global semiconductors practice at consultancy McKinsey.

Amid an unmitigated global chip shortage, Nexperia, a semiconductor firm owned by China's Wingtech Technology Co Ltd, confirmed on Monday its outright acquisition of the UK-based chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab, in which it has been the second-largest shareholder since 2019.

Earlier this year, Nexperia announced it will invest 12 billion yuan ($1.85 billion) to build a new 300mm (12-inch) power semiconductor wafer fab in Lingang, Shanghai.