CHONGQING CITY, CHINA – A pair of leading printed circuit board fabricators are among the early investors who have pledged up to $800 million in a campus to build cables and PCBs in Western China.

Among the companies that have signed on include top PCB fabricators HannStar Board and Global Brands Manufacture. The five-year investment could reach $600 million to $800 million, according to a director of PSA Group (Passive System Alliance), a unit of Walsin Group, which is overseeing the project.

Walsin, one of Taiwan’s largest suppliers of wires, metal cables and passive chip components, established PSA in 2002, and is also a longtime investor in HannStar and Winbond Electronics.

According to reports, PSA will contribute $92 million to the first phase of the project, including $49 million from GBM, $30 million from Walsin and $6 million from HannStar, among others.

GBM plans to bring its PCB production online next February, the reports said. GBM’s initial monthly capacity will be 900,000 sq. ft., ramping by 300,000 sq. ft. by mid summer. HannStar will bring about 700,000 sq. ft. per month of production online at the end of next year.

Labor costs in the region are about half those of other areas in China.