Delaware-based HieFo, controlled by a Chinese citizen, has 180 days to divest all semiconductor-related assets acquired in 2024.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump issued an order Friday canceling HieFo Corporation’s acquisition of chips and wafer fabrication assets from Emcore Corp. in 2024, citing national security concerns.
The
order prohibits Delaware-based HieFo, controlled by a Chinese citizen, from owning “the assets comprising the digital chips and related wafer design, fabrication, and processing businesses” acquired from New Jersey-based Emcore. The acquisition was completed on April 30, 2024.
The president said in the order that “there is credible evidence” showing HieFo, through its acquisition of Emcore’s assets, “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”
The company has 180 days to divest all these assets, according to the order, unless the date is extended by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The committee is an interagency body that reviews foreign investments in the United States to assess potential national security risks.
The president made the decision after CFIUS
found a national security risk in the transaction, according to a separate statement from the Treasury Department. The concerns were about potential access to Emcore’s intellectual property, know-how, and expertise, as well as the risk that the supply of chips made by the Emcore Digital Chips business could be diverted from the United States.
HieFo and its affiliates, according to the order, will be forced to “divest all interests and rights in the Emcore Assets, wherever located, including contracts, inventory, tangible property, parts, fixed assets, accounts receivable, permits, real property leased or owned by EMCORE Corporation, and intellectual property.”
In a 2024
statement, the company announced that it had completed the acquisition of nearly all assets of Emcore’s “non-core discontinued chips business line and InP wafer fabrication operations.” The acquisition included the transfer of equipment, contracts, intellectual property, and inventory from Emcore’s Alhambra, California, facility.
In the statement, Genzao Zhang and Harry Moore were listed as co-founders of the new company. Zhang, former vice president of engineering at Emocre, has been named CEO of HieFo.
“By leveraging more than four decades of innovative legacy in optoelectronic devices from EMCORE, we will continue the pursuit of the most innovative and disruptive solutions to serve telecom, datacom, and AI connectivity industries,” Zhang said in the statement. “With the experienced core team and strong financial backing, we will be resuming the operations very rapidly.”
This was not the first time Trump blocked a deal.
In July, he issued an
order blocking Suirui International Co.’s acquisition of Delaware-based Jupiter Systems. The decision came after CFIUS identified national security risks related to Jupiter’s products being “used in military and critical infrastructure environments.” The president’s order canceled the acquisition, which was completed in February 2020, and directed the Hong Kong-based company to divest all its interests and rights in Jupiter.
On Feb. 21, 2025, Trump
signed a memorandum to address national security threats posed by Chinese investments in the United States.
According to the memorandum, the United States will use all legal instruments, including the CFIUS, to limit Chinese investments in key sectors such as technology, critical infrastructure, health care, agriculture, energy, and raw materials.
“The United States will establish new rules to curb the exploitation of its capital, technology, and knowledge by foreign adversaries such as China to ensure that only those investments that serve American interests are allowed,” the White House said in a
fact sheet at the time.
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