Lei Jun sweeps up the goods: he invested in three chip companies in one breath

The investment community learned from tianyancha that recently, Ningbo gekong Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. has undergone industrial and commercial changes, and its investors have added Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund partnership (limited partnership) (hereinafter referred to as “Xiaomi Industrial Fund”). < / P > < p > this is the third chip enterprise Xiaomi invested in in in just half a month. Just ten days ago, Xiaomi industrial fund just invested in two chip companies canxin semiconductor and xinlai technology. Not long ago, Lei Jun admitted on microblog that the research and development of surging chip had encountered great difficulties, but Xiaomi’s self-developed chip was still on the way. Since January this year, Xiaomi industrial fund has invested in at least 17 chip related enterprises. Xiaomi’s intensive scavenging is a microcosm of the explosion of semiconductor investment. An investor focusing on semiconductors said, “five years ago, the number of GP investing in semiconductors in the market could be counted by one hand. Now it seems that no GP does not invest in semiconductors.” More than 0.8 billion yuan of investment in the semiconductor industry, including the investment of more than 0.8 billion yuan in the semiconductor industry, was announced by the small eye fund of more than 0.8 billion yuan. Among them, Xiaomi industry fund holds 2.50%, which is the 12th largest shareholder of the company. < p > < p > data shows that canxin semiconductor, founded in 2008, is a customized chip (ASIC) design solution provider and IP supplier. It provides high-end system level chip (SOC) design services and turn key services below 55nm / 40nm / 28nm / 14nm, and can provide customers with one-stop service from RTL design to chip products. < / P > < p > it is worth mentioning that canxin semiconductor and SMIC international integrated circuit manufacturing Co., Ltd. formed an alliance as a strategic partner in 2010. Based on SMIC international technology, it developed the company’s own brand “you” series IP and silicon platform solutions. In addition to the strategic partnership, SMIC is the largest shareholder of cancore semiconductor, with a shareholding of 24.61%. On the same day, xinlai technology also announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, led by Xiaomi Changjiang industrial fund, which held 10.1% of shares, ranking the third largest shareholder. < p > < p > it is reported that xinlai technology was founded in 2018 and is committed to the IP development and commercialization of risc-v architecture processor core. Its founder and CEO Hu Zhenbo has worked for a long time in a well-known international semiconductor company, serving as a processor R & D and management post. Hu Zhenbo said that Xiaomi’s investment in xinlai technology will promote the business cooperation between Xiaomi ecological chain enterprises and xinlai technology, promote the application of domestic risc-v architecture products to more IOT devices, and promote the process of domestic risc-v application ecology. According to Tianyan, on August 13, Ningbo gekong Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. changed its business and industry, and the company’s investors added Xiaomi industrial fund and Shanghai Jingfeng Mingyuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Among them, Xiaomi industry fund holds 4%, ranking the eighth largest shareholder. According to the introduction on the official website, space intelligence, which was established in December 2017, is the pioneer of global single chip intelligent sensors. It is committed to the research and development of the world’s leading single chip integrated sensors and products, providing a complete set of cost-effective solutions for chips, hardware, algorithms, software and sensor modules. Since its establishment, the company has obtained investment from Zhenge fund, IC coffee fund, Ningbo angel investment guidance fund and Sanhang capital. < / P > < p > in such a short period of time, Xiaomi’s urgency in the field of chip is highlighted. When talking about the investment in canxin semiconductor, pan jiutang, partner of Xiaomi industry fund, said frankly: “with the increasingly fierce competition, customized chip has become one of the important means for downstream manufacturers such as global system, whole machine, Internet and vertical operators to realize product differentiation and improve supply chain security. There is a huge prospect for customized chip business in the future.” < p > < p > back in October 2014, Xiaomi and Lianxin jointly invested to establish pinecone electronics. Subsequently, pinecone electronics based on some of the core team, together with the talents from other IC design companies in China, jointly formed the research and development team of Xiaomi self-developed chip, and completed the sample production on July 26, 2015. At 1:48 a.m. on September 24, 2015, Xiaomi self-developed chip called for the first time. Two days later, the screen was lit up for the first time, which means that Xiaomi’s self-developed chip was successfully taped for the first time, and the development of hardware foundation was successfully completed. “At that time, everyone was so excited that they almost forgot to take a group photo. At that time, many people didn’t go home for more than a week. ” Lei Jun once recalled. < / P > < p > based on the team’s unremitting persistence, Xiaomi pengpai S1 chip was officially released in February 2017, and Xiaomi 5C, a mobile phone carrying the chip, was also released. However, Xiaomi’s chip development has encountered great difficulties since then. It has been reported that surging S2 chip failed several times. As a key procedure to measure the success of a chip, “streaming” costs millions of yuan at a time, which is only a small part of the funding required for chip development. < / P > < p > in April 2019, Xiaomi company issued a statement to reorganize its pinecone team. Some team members were transferred to Nanjing to establish Nanjing Dayu semiconductor company. As soon as the news came out, it was rumored that Xiaomi gave up chip research and development, and Lei Jun did not respond actively until Xiaomi’s 10th anniversary speech. < p > < p > Lei Jun admitted on his microblog that the research and development of surging chip has encountered great difficulties, but Xiaomi’s self-developed chip is still on the way, “please rest assured that this plan is still going on. I’ll let you know when there are new developments. ” < p > < p > since the rumors of the failure of S2, Lei Jun has rarely mentioned chip self-development. Correspondingly, Xiaomi began to speed up the investment layout in the chip field. Through its industrial funds, it has invested a large number of related enterprises in the chip field, saving the “core” in the form of investment. < / P > < p > according to public data, Xiaomi industry fund was established in 2017, jointly initiated by Xiaomi and Hubei Yangtze River economic belt industry guidance fund partnership (limited partnership), which is mainly used to support the business development of Xiaomi and Xiaomi ecological chain enterprises, with a total scale of about 12 billion yuan. Among them, Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. holds 17.23%. < p > < p > according to incomplete statistics from the investment community, since its establishment, Xiaomi industrial fund has invested at least 17 chip related enterprises, covering the supply chain of mobile phones and intelligent hardware, core components of electronic products, new materials and new technologies. < p > < p > among them, Xinyuan shares invested by Xiaomi Industrial Fund in 2019 successfully landed on the science and technology innovation board just two days ago, with an opening price of 150 yuan / share, a sharp rise of 289.31% compared with the issuance price, and the market value on that day exceeded 70 billion yuan. < / P > < p > from the perspective of the enterprises participating in the investment, most of Xiaomi’s layout are Bluetooth, Wi Fi, RF and other peripheral chip design companies. Compared with application level chips, the technical difficulty and capital investment threshold are lower. From the perspective of investment rhythm, Xiaomi has invested heavily in five chip companies in the first month of this year, including Aojie technology, smart microelectronics, Enrui microelectronics, Satcom semiconductor and chipbat microelectronics. < / P > < p > some people in the industry said that the self-developed SOC integrated chip for mobile phones has a greater demand for patents and funds, and it also tests the industry integration ability of manufacturers, so it is difficult to achieve it overnight. It is wise for Xiaomi to choose from the plate with lower integration difficulty. Through investment, it can quickly obtain the related resources and improve the discourse power in the industry. < / P > < p > as smartphones fall into more and more serious homogenization competition, chips become the key role in the innovation of mobile phones. As Lei Jun said three years ago, “chip is the commanding height of mobile phone technology.” To this end, domestic mobile phone manufacturers at all costs, heavy investment. < p > < p > Huawei established Hisilicon as early as 2004, focusing on self-developed chips and successfully building Kirin series. At the same time, Huawei spent more than 480 billion yuan on R & D in the past 10 years from 2008 to 2018, and rose to 120 billion yuan in 2019. Under the influence of international relations, Huawei is also accelerating the search for domestic alternative solutions for chip supply chain, and Hubble investment has become one of the important ways to find solutions. < p > < p > in April 2019, Huawei’s Hubble investment was quietly registered. According to the public information, Hubble investment has invested at least 14 chip industry chain enterprises in a short period of more than one year, with a total investment of more than 200 million yuan. Moreover, many enterprises are mainly engaged in self-developed high-tech and have certain advantages in their respective subdivision fields, which can be called “invisible Champions”. Oppo is also unwilling to lag behind. On February 16, this year’s “special article on oppo’s internal research” was released to all employees of the company. Mariana is the deepest trench in the world and one of the worst environments on earth. Oppo as a code name, obviously describes the extremely difficult self-developed chip. < / P > < p > in order to better manufacture chips, oppo has wholly owned a number of subsidiaries, including zheku technology, Jinsheng communication, etc. Oppo is also recruiting talents from the industry. In February this year, Zhu shangzu, the former chief operating officer of MediaTek, joined oppo as a consultant. In May, Li Zonglin, general manager of the wireless communication business unit of the United Development Department, also joined oppo. He was the main research and development force of several mobile phone chips of the United Development and development department. < p > < p > the semiconductor boom also swept the venture capital circle. On August 4, the State Council issued several policies to promote the high-quality development of integrated circuit industry and software industry in the new era, which not only gave the greatest tax preference in the history of integrated circuit manufacturers, but also gave huge policy support to many VC / PE investors in the industry, which once made the VC / PE Circle boil. < p > < p > behind the intensive scavenging of millet, semiconductor investment is ushering in a big explosion. An investor lamented that he could no longer “work” for foreign chip suppliers. In the future, only when the chip industry chain is fully localized will Huawei’s chip outage not happen again.