Lei Jun's greedy moment: two months of intensive investment in eight chip companies, Xiaomi speed "fill" the core!

Zhi Dongxi (WeChat official account: zhidxcom) Wen | Wei Shiwei

Shortly after its opening in 2020, Xiaomi, the "investment company", started to act again.

Buffett said: "I am afraid when others are greedy, and I am greedy when others are afraid." At a time when the global economy is on the verge of crisis, Lei Jun's Xiaomi Industrial Fund has started a greedy mode.

Starting from 65438+ 10/6, Xiaomi Group invested in eight semiconductor companies, including Dio Microelectronics, Intelligent Microelectronics and Aojie Technology, through its Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) in just over two months.

This wave of operation, from 20 191910/0/9, Xiaomi invested in AliExpress Semiconductor for the first time less than half a year. At this point, Xiaomi's supply chain investment map has been extended to 19 semiconductor, covering Wi-Fi chips, radio frequency (RF) chips, MCU sensors, FPGA and other fields.

Xiaomi's dream of making cores has never stopped.

On June 5438+ 10 last year, Zhidongxi investigated and reported Xiaomi's supply chain investment, focusing on Xiaomi's ecological chain and supply chain investment strategy, especially in the semiconductor field. ("Millet Breakthrough: Two years of investment in layout killing 12 supply chain enterprises, how many cards does Lei Jun have? 》)

Xiaomi revealed in the second quarter financial report of 20 19 that as of June 30, 20 19, there were more than 270 * * investment companies with a total book value of 28.7 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 20.8%. At the same time, as of August 20, it has invested in 12 supply chain companies, covering fields from semiconductors to intelligent manufacturing.

Among them, the eight semiconductor companies it invested in not only provided endurance for its "AI+AIoT" dual-engine strategy in a short time, but also laid a technical foundation for its long-term impact on the chip R&D market and opening up the "meridians" of the industrial chain.

These are the "self-help" and new ways of playing Xiaomi's industrial chain in the semiconductor field after the abortion of S2 chip.

With a series of investment actions of Xiaomi since 2020, Zhidongxi decided to focus on Xiaomi's semiconductor investment planning again. While exploring the layout and progress of Xiaomi in the semiconductor field, we also found out its hidden strategic ideas and changes.

At the same time, can Xiaomi's industrial chain investment tactics really create new technology layout games? It's a long way to go, Xiu Yuan. What ambition and expectation does Xiaomi's core-making road reflect?

In February this year, at Xiaomi's first product launch conference, flagship machine Xiaomi 10, which had been on for some time, once again aroused the enthusiasm of the industry, and the protagonist who propped up the product performance was upgraded from Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 to Snapdragon 865.

Behind the "halo" blessing of Snapdragon 865, it is the third year S2 of Xiaomi.

Since the advent of 20 17 Xiaomi 5C mobile phone and the surging S 1, the word "self-developed chip" has gradually become another weakness of Xiaomi, and this is also a story that has long been "rotten" by the industry.

In 20 18, Xiaomi's semiconductor company, Guo Song Electronics, was reorganized. After the establishment of Nanjing Daewoo Semiconductor, Xiaomi's road to self-research nuclear core seemed to stop at the outside world.

Although a year later, Big Fish Semiconductor and Pingtou Ge jointly released the NB-IoT SoC chip named U 1, which is oriented to the field of Internet of Things, with built-in GPS and PA (power amplifier chip) to support Beidou NB-IoT R 13, it did not cause much waves in the market. Looking back, I don't know when the official website of Pinecone Electronics was covered with dust, showing that it was inaccessible.

However, contrary to the slow progress of Xiaomi's self-developed chip, Xiaomi's semiconductor investment action is gradually accelerating.

2018 65438+1On October 23rd, Shunwei Capital, founded by Xiaomi's Mizi Technology and Lei Jun, invested in Nanxin Semiconductor, a semiconductor company engaged in IC research and design, with a transaction amount of tens of millions of RMB, which started Xiaomi's first shot on the battlefield of semiconductor investment.

In the following two years, Xiaomi's investment in the "engine" continued to accelerate, and successively invested in Yunyinggu Technology, Lexin Technology, Core Microelectronics and other 19 semiconductor companies, covering display driver chips, MCU sensors, Wi-Fi chips and RF chips. Among them, Chen Ju Semiconductor, Lexin Technology and Chen Jing Semiconductor have been successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

This momentum of Xiaomi also continued until 2020, and showed a stronger momentum in the market.

Since 65438+ 10/6, Xiaomi's Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership), referred to as Changjiang Xiaomi Industrial Fund, has invested in 8 semiconductor companies in two months, with 7 new investments, far exceeding the previous frequency.

According to public statistics, these eight semiconductor companies are Dio Microelectronics, Sutton Semiconductors, Xinbaite Microelectronics, Fortior (Fengfeng Technology), Angrui Microelectronics, Aojie Technology, Smart Microelectronics and Hanxin Microelectronics.

1, Dio Microelectronics

Dior Wei was founded in February 20 10, which is a mixed analog semiconductor IC design and manufacturing company. Its founder and chairman Zhu Jian Hong graduated from new york State University majoring in electronic engineering. Before formally establishing Diowei, he had nearly ten years' working experience in Fairchild Semiconductor, responsible for chip design, technology, application and marketing.

At present, Diomicro provides corresponding chip solutions for consumer electronics, smart home, LED lighting, medical electronics and industrial electronics. The main products include LED lighting components, ultra-low power consumption and low noise amplifiers, high-efficiency power management electronic components and electronic components applied to various analog audio/video.

As of July 20 19/day, Diomicro has applied for 65 patents. Among them, invention patents were granted 15, and utility model patents were granted 17.

According to the public information of Jiangsu Nantong Sutong Science and Technology Industrial Park Management Committee, from 2065438 to June 30, 2009, Diwei was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

June 65438+1October 65438+June 2020, Dior Wei also welcomed a strategic financing from Xiaomi. The shareholders added Changjiang Xiaomi Fund, holding 17.23%, but the transaction amount has not been disclosed.

2. Intelligent microelectronics

Intelligent Microelectronics is an MCU chip and solution provider, which was established in March, 20 1 1. Its chairman and CEO, Dr. Wu Zhongjie, graduated from Southeast University and worked in several large chip design companies.

In terms of products, based on Arm Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3 cores, Smart Microelectronics has developed MM32 series MCU products, mainly five series of F/L/W/SPIN/P, which are aimed at general high-performance markets, ultra-low power consumption and security applications, wireless connection, motors and power supplies, and OTP (one-time programmable) MCU.

It is understood that MM32 series MCU products have been widely used in automotive electronics, industrial and motor control, smart home appliances, medical care, consumer electronics and other markets.

In fact, as early as August 3, 20654381day, Intelligent Microelectronics was listed on the New Third Board, but the company announced on August 20 19 that it would terminate its stock listing on March 41day and announced its delisting.

Following the expansion of investment in Xiaomi's semiconductor industry chain, Xiaomi also focused on the MCU technology advantages of intelligent microelectronics. In June 65438+1October 65438+September this year, Intelligent Microelectronics obtained strategic financing funds invested by Changjiang Xiaomi Industry Fund, and its registered capital increased to 56.68 million yuan, an increase of 19.88%.

At the same time, Wang Xiaobo, managing partner of Xiaomi Industrial Fund, became the new director of Intelligent Microelectronics.

3. New Baxter Microelectronics

Compared with other semiconductor companies invested by Xiaomi, the new Baxter established by 20 18 and 10 is particularly young.

It is understood that Zhang Haitao, the founder and CEO of the company, graduated from Tsinghua University with a master's degree in microelectronics, went to the United States to study and obtained a doctorate in microelectronics from the University of California, and has worked in Qualcomm, TriQuint and RFaxis for more than ten years. At the same time, he also led the R&D team in charge of Apple iPhone5/6 and Texas Instruments WiFi RF terminal project.

Core Baxter mainly adopts high-performance RF chip technology to design and develop RF devices for wireless communication. Products are distributed in the fields of 5G, Wi-Fi and IoT, and are oriented to many markets such as communication equipment, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, medical electronics and smart devices.

At present, the company has developed Wi-Fi 5 front-end module (FEM), 5G communication power amplifier, RF switch and other products, and reached cooperative partnerships with Xiaomi, Lenovo, China Mobile and China Telecom.

On June 65438+1October 2 1 day this year, New Baxter also disclosed the first equity financing. Changjiang Xiaomi Industry Fund contributed 560,300 yuan, accounting for 4.33% of the shares, becoming the seventh largest shareholder of the company.

4. Fortior

Fengxiu Technology was established in May, 20 10. It is a relatively low-key IC design company, mainly developing special chips for motor drive control.

According to the survey, Bi Lei, founder and CEO, was selected as the eighth batch of "Thousand Talents Program" of the Central Organization Department of the State in 20 12, and Bi Chao, CTO, was also selected as the eleventh batch of "Thousand Talents Program" in 20 15, which is an important talent policy implemented in China to introduce returned talents.

At the same time, Bi Chao is a postdoctoral tutor of the National University of Singapore, a senior member of IEEE, and a senior scientist of Singapore Science and Technology Bureau, and has rich research and development experience in the field of motor technology.

▲ Bi Chao, CTO of Yufeng Technology

At present, Fengfeng Technology has set up two R&D centers in China and Singapore respectively.

Through many core technologies such as three-phase and single-phase Hall-free DC brushless drive, a full range of DC brushless motor drive products are developed, including three-phase BLDC special control chip, single-phase BLDC special control chip, motor special MCU series and so on. , widely used in terminal equipment, drones, consumer electronics, household appliances and medical equipment.

2065438+In April 2004, Fengxiu Technology obtained Series A financing with a transaction amount of tens of millions of RMB. The strategic financing disclosed in June 5438+1October 2 1 was invested by Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund, Zhongxing Venture Capital and other institutions, of which Xiaomi invested 1297200 RMB, accounting for 1.87%.

5. Anrui Microelectronics

For Anruiwei, who has just moved to a new home, the 3 1075438+00000 yuan invested by Xiaomi on February 20th is undoubtedly good news. Prior to this, Angruiwei had not made any capital increase for seven years. It is understood that after this investment, Xiaomi's equity accounted for 6.98%, becoming the third largest shareholder of Angruiwei.

At the same time, this investment will also be used for the research and development of the RF front-end chip of the 5G mobile phone terminal and the next-generation Internet of Things SoC chip.

Founded in July 20 12, Anruiwei is one of the important RF/analog integrated circuit design and development manufacturers in China.

Through the long-term accumulation of RF technologies such as CMOS, SiGe, GaAs and GaN, a series of RF front-end chips and wireless connection chips such as 2G/3G/4G/5G RF front-end chips, Bluetooth low power consumption (BLE) chips, dual-mode Bluetooth chips and low noise amplifiers have been developed, and more than 200 chips have been produced.

It is understood that the chips developed by Angruiwei have covered consumer fields such as mobile terminals, wearable devices, drones and smart homes. Customers include Samsung Electronics, Foxconn, ZTE, TCL, Lenovo and other manufacturers.

6. AliExpress Semiconductor Company

Compared with other traditional chip manufacturers, AliExpress Semiconductor, which was established from 2065438 to July 2008, is also relatively young. It is a Wi-Fi 6 chip design company, but it is the only non-new investment enterprise in Xiaomi's semiconductor investment in 2020.

In fact, Changjiang Xiaomi Industry Fund has invested in AliExpress Semiconductor on 20119, becoming the sixth largest shareholder of the company, and this is the last time Xiaomi invested in the semiconductor field in 20 19.

Based on the chip research and development technology of AliExpress Semiconductor in the field of Wi-Fi 6, Xiaomi decided to increase its weight, and on February 20 this year, it led the company's A round of financing, followed by Yaotu Capital. At this point, the registered capital of AliExpress Semiconductor increased from the initial 654.38+004 million yuan to 654.38+03 million yuan, an increase of 25%.

In addition to further expanding the engineering R&D team, AliExpress Semiconductor also plans to use this investment for R&D and mass production of Wi-Fi 6 SoC products.

It is reported that the company's core R&D team has rich experience in Wi-Fi 6 standardization, and has previously developed more than 20 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular 4G unlimited SoC chipsets worldwide.

At this stage, the company is also accelerating the research and development and mass production of the next-generation Wi-Fi 6 chipset to further meet the strong market demand for Wi-Fi 6 chips.

7. Aojie Technology

Aojie Technology is a baseband chip design company that mainly develops consumer electronic chips such as mobile terminal equipment, Internet of Things and navigation. Founded in August of 20 15 and 20 17, it was awarded the A round of financing by Alibaba and Shenzhen Venture Capital. Alibaba is the largest shareholder, holding 2 1.75%.

On February 24th this year, Aojie Technology, which has a rich financing history, obtained strategic investment from Changjiang Xiaomi Industry Fund, Xingzheng Investment and other institutions, and its registered capital also increased from 363 million US dollars to 375 million US dollars. Among them, the subscribed capital contribution of Xiaomi is 519170,000 USD, accounting for 1.38%.

It is understood that Dai, the founder and chairman of Aojie Technology, graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a master's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. Prior to the establishment of Aojie Technology, he also served as the chairman and CEO of Rideco, a radio frequency chip company.

It is worth mentioning that in 20 17, the company acquired Marvell's mobile communication department (MBU) and became one of the few companies with full netcom technology in China.

At present, the product line of Aojie Technology has covered multi-standard communication standards including 2G/3G/4G/5G and IoT, and successfully developed a variety of communication chips such as mobile communication baseband chips, Wi-Fi chips, LoRa chips, and multimode Internet of Things wearable chips.

8. Hanxin Microelectronics Company

Hanxin Microelectronics, founded in 2065438+March 2007, is a fast charging protocol chip company, including mixed digital and analog chips and power chips. At present, the company has many business product lines, such as LDO (low dropout regulator), voltage detection, lithium battery charging, fast charging interface identification, USB charging protocol port, etc., covering toys, smart meters and fast charging.

It is understood that Hanxin Microelectronics not only reached tens of millions of strategic investment cooperation with TCL and SK Hynix in 20 17, but also served as a supplier of fast charge protocols for companies such as Qualcomm, Huawei and Spreadtrum, and the cumulative shipment of fast charge protocol chips has reached nearly 6,543.8 billion.

Just a week ago, on March 10, Changjiang Xiaomi Industry Fund announced new foreign investment, and formally took a stake in Hanxin Microelectronics, with a capital contribution of 308,600 yuan, accounting for 9.92%, making it the fourth largest shareholder of the company.

At the same time, the registered capital of Hanxin Microelectronics has also increased from 2,777,800 yuan to 3,654,38+065,438+0.265,438+0,000 yuan, an increase of 654,38+02.04%.

It is not difficult to see that Xiaomi's semiconductor industry layout is the same as Lei Jun's consistent investment path of "primary ecological chain and primary industrial chain". It also puts "eggs" in two baskets, one is self-developed chips and the other is industrial chain investment.

However, from the actual situation, Xiaomi's road to self-research nuclear heart is not smooth.

It is understood that the S 1 introduced by Xiaomi 20 17 is a 64-bit processor, which adopts 28nm process technology and is designed by eight nuclear. It includes four A53 cores at 2.2GHz, four A53 cores at 1.4GHz and four Mali-T860 GPU.

For Xiaomi, who started from the Internet, the birth of 2855438+0 was not easy, but Lei Jun started the first research and development of Xiaomi Semiconductor in the mobile intelligent terminal market, so this chip is still weak in performance, technology and power consumption compared with other competitors.

There are rumors that the 澎湃 2 chip can't break through the bottleneck of power consumption performance, and the senior management team can't afford the huge cost of chip research and development, and Xiaomi's original huge self-developed core-building plan gradually disappears.

Although with the reorganization of Guo Song Electronics Co., Ltd., Big Fish Semiconductor and Pingtou Ge jointly launched the NB-IoT SoC chip on 20 19, but the performance was mediocre, which failed to really refresh the label of Xiaomi's "insufficient nuclear-making ability" in the industry and market.

Then, should Lei Jun's stumbling dream of self-research and core-building wake up? At present, the answer is still no.

In the field of industrial chain investment, practice makes perfect. In the past two years, Xiaomi has gradually opened up a semiconductor supply chain investment road with "millet characteristics", making up for the shortcomings of its own semiconductor research and development strength.

According to Zhidongxi, among the 19 semiconductor companies invested by Xiaomi in recent two years, besides Shunwei Capital founded by Lei Jun, investors also include Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund Partnership (referred to as Changjiang Xiaomi Industry Fund), Jiangsu Mizi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Mizi Technology), Tianjin Jinxing Venture Capital Co., Ltd., Wuhan Luojia Wu Tong Emerging Industry Investment Fund Partnership and People Better.

Behind the semiconductor investment map slowly spread by Xiaomi, the Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund played the most important role.

It is understood that the fund was established in 20 17 with a target scale of1200 million RMB, which is mainly used to support the business development of Xiaomi and Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises. However, unlike other funds that focus on investing in Internet of Things companies, this fund's foreign investment is mainly concentrated in the semiconductor field.

Wisdom found that at present, Changjiang Xiaomi Fund has made 24 foreign investments on the enterprise business information inquiry platform, covering mobile phones and intelligent hardware, core devices of electronic products, intelligent manufacturing, industrial automation, new materials and new technologies.

Among them, more than half of the fund investment falls in the semiconductor field, 13, which has become an important weapon for Xiaomi to invest in the semiconductor supply chain.

At present, it seems that "angel investor" Lei Jun's semiconductor investment dream is accumulating enough strength to move on.

2020 is not only the second year that Lei Jun announced the launch of Xiaomi's "mobile phone +AIoT" dual-engine strategy, but also the third year that Xiaomi realized his dream of making cores.

At this stage, Xiaomi's semiconductor investment map has been laid out in MCU, FPGA, RF, GaN, IP and other fields, and gradually realized the whole industry chain coverage from semiconductor materials, electronic components to ic design.

However, it is not difficult to find that Xiaomi's dream of making a core is turning, from the mobile terminal chip market originally targeted by Lei Jun to the Internet of Things market.

The most direct embodiment is that Xiaomi's smartphone hardware is still mainly based on Qualcomm chips, while its semiconductor investment is concentrated in the more widely used AIoT field.

For example, Xiaomi has invested in more than 8 semiconductor companies involved in smart home, including Wuxi Haoda, Chen Jing Semiconductor, Core Microelectronics, An Kai Microelectronics and Anrui Microelectronics.

This is undoubtedly an important step for Xiaomi to fall under the development of AIoT in the market in 20 18.

According to the data reported by market research organization iiMedia Research, the size of China AIoT hardware market has reached 500 billion yuan in 20 18, and it is estimated that this figure will exceed one trillion yuan by 2020.

With the beginning of 20 19, Lei Jun announced that he would invest10 billion RMB in the AIoT field in the next five years, and the R&D investment cost of Xiaomi also increased year by year.

On February 13 this year, Xiaomi released a voluntary announcement to disclose the latest income and research and development expenses. By the end of 20 19, 12 and 3 1 year, Xiaomi's R&D expenditure is estimated to be about 7 billion RMB, and it is planned to increase key investment in the field of 5G+AIoT to further expand the company's advantages in the field of IoT.

At the same time, by the end of June, 2020, the R&D expenditure of Xiaomi is expected to exceed RMB 10, which is four years ahead of the R&D investment of 10 in five years promised by Lei Jun in 20 19. In contrast, in 20 17 years, Xiaomi's R&D expenditure was only 3 1.5 1 100 million, accounting for 2.75% of the total revenue.

From another perspective, Xiaomi is more inclined to take the road of "win-win investment". To put it simply, Xiaomi is one of the "golden owners" of those semiconductor companies and also their important customers.

Take Chen Jing Semiconductor invested by Xiaomi 20 18 1 1 as an example. The company mainly develops multimedia intelligent terminal application processor chips, including Amazon, Google, Alibaba, Baidu, Xiaomi and other companies are its customers. Among them, the sales amount of Chen Jing Semiconductor to Xiaomi in 20 18 was about RMB 262 million, accounting for 1 1.06% of the revenue in the same period.

Based on this strategic relationship, Xiaomi's AIoT business also achieved good results in fiscal year 20 19.

According to the Q3 financial report data of Xiaomi in 20 19, as of September 30th, 20 19, the number of IOT devices (excluding smart phones and laptops) accessed by Xiaomi IOT platform reached 213.2 million, a year-on-year increase of 62.0%.

In addition, Xiaomi's income from the Internet of Things and consumer products was 65.438+056 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.4%. Among them, according to Aowei Cloud, in the third quarter of 2065,438+09, Xiaomi TV ranked first in domestic shipments with a market share of 16.9%.

From this point of view, Xiaomi is showing its great ambition with the acceleration of semiconductor investment layout under the wave of AIoT and core-making.

But Xiaomi's road to core-building is not enough with ambition. Behind the semiconductor investment map, Xiaomi is still suffering from the sting of "lack of core" and "lack of technology". At present, Xiaomi still lacks a "core" to truly stand on the commanding heights of the industry and become what Lei Jun called a "great company".

Looking back at the public opinion field of Xiaomi's core-making, on the one hand, the industry ridiculed and questioned Xiaomi's self-developed chips, on the other hand, the capital market's curiosity and expectation for Xiaomi's strategic investment.

At present, as far as Xiaomi's investment and specific development in the semiconductor industry chain are concerned, its core construction breakthrough is still a long and protracted war. On the one hand, Xiaomi is still waiting for the "comeback" of Songguo Electronics, hoping that the "rookie" big fish semiconductor can catch up; On the other hand, although Xiaomi is constantly expanding its semiconductor investment territory, it has not really shaken the market position of domestic head players.

It is undeniable that Xiaomi's investment in semiconductor companies will help to enrich and expand its own AIoT business, but in the final analysis, how strong are these investments to Xiaomi's own chip research and development technology? Can it really bring technological innovation to Xiaomi? We don't know yet.

Xiaomi's gradually accelerated semiconductor investment layout can provide development impetus for its "AI+AIoT" dual-engine strategy in a short time, enriching and expanding AIoT business. However, in the long run, Xiaomi Leijun's dream of manufacturing the core is still long and difficult.