Nations Technologies has announced a RMB 60 million ($8.4M) strategic investment in Nanjing Youcun Technology, a NOR-Flash and compute-in-memory chip designer, as part of a Series B funding round. The deal values Youcun at RMB 590M pre-money, giving Nations an 8.33% stake. Youcun will become an associate company and will not be consolidated into Nations' financial statements.
Founded in 2018, Youcun specializes in NOR flash memory and NOR-architecture in-memory computing chips, with a core team of experienced storage IC engineers.
Nations Technologies, which posted RMB 906M revenue in H1 2026 (+43% YoY) and returned to net profitability, operates four main product lines: general-purpose MCUs, security chips, BMS power management ICs, and Bluetooth RF chips. The company’s "3+1" long-term strategy focuses on:
Consolidating the core MCU business for consumer and appliance markets.
Deepening penetration in AI compute, robotics, industrial control, and low-altitude economy.
Building edge AI capabilities with intelligent energy and terminal-side chip technologies.
Developing full-stack AI through internal tooling and an AI-powered FAE service agent.
The investment in Youcun is the first major move under Nations' industrial synergy strategy. By pairing its MCU portfolio with external NOR-Flash resources, the company aims to offer customized MCU + memory solutions for AI server power, optical modules, robotics, and industrial applications – addressing growing demand for tightly coupled processing and storage.
ICgoodFind Takeaway:
Nations is placing a strategic bet on MCU + NOR-Flash integration. The investment gives it access to external memory IP and products, enabling more flexible custom MCU solutions for AI-edge and industrial segments.
