The intention behind Xiaomi’s chip: Which companies are promising?

As a mobile phone manufacturer, Xiaomi has always had the ambition or dream to make chips, but the road to pursuing the dream has not been smooth in recent years. Recently, Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said that in the past two years, Xiaomi has invested in 12 smart manufacturing and semiconductor chip industries, and three of them have been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in the past two months. Obviously, Xiaomi's intention to change lanes and test run is becoming more and more obvious.

In fact, many semiconductor companies are invested by Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) under Xiaomi. Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) was jointly established by Xiaomi and Changjiang Industrial Fund. Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. holds a 17.2265% stake.

Xiaomi's Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund Partnership Enterprise Structure Diagram (Source: Qixinbao)

In November 2018, Xiaomi invested in Amlog
Semiconductor through equity transfer.

Amlogic Semiconductor is a global leader in fabless semiconductor system design, dedicated to the research, development, design and sales of multimedia intelligent terminal SOC chips. Chip products have covered cutting-edge technology fields such as smart set-top boxes, smart TVs and AI audio and video system terminals. The company is currently actively deploying consumer security markets such as IPC and automotive electronics markets such as in-vehicle entertainment and assisted driving.

Jingchen's business covers the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, the United States, Europe and other major economic regions around the world. With its global location advantages and market resources, the company has accumulated a global customer base, including Google, Amazon, Xiaomi, Alibaba, Baidu, ZTE, Haier, TCL, Skyworth and other companies, as well as telecom operators such as China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Russian Telecom, and India's Reliance.

Xiaomi
invested in Espressif as early as 2016 when Espressif raised its Series A funding round.

Espressif is a global fabless semiconductor company founded in 2008, headquartered in Shanghai, China, with subsidiaries in Greater China, India and Europe. Espressif engineers come from all over the world and are committed to the development of cutting-edge low-power Wi-Fi + Bluetooth dual-mode IoT solutions. After years of deep cultivation in the field of wireless computing technology, we have developed green, versatile, and cost-effective chipsets, realizing our mission: to provide secure, stable, reliable, and low-power IoT solutions.

Xiaomi invested in Stone Technology
as early as September 2015, during its angel round of funding.

Stone Technology was founded on July 4, 2014. Its main business is the design, research and development, production and sales of smart hardware such as smart cleaning robots. As an ODM original design company, it provides Xiaomi with customized products "Mijia Smart Sweeping Robot" and related spare parts.

On April 9, 2019, the application materials of Stone Technology for the Science and Technology Innovation Board were accepted. The Shanghai Stock Exchange website showed on August 5 that the review status of Stone Technology, a company accepted by the Science and Technology Innovation Board, has changed to suspended. It is reported that Stone Technology applied for suspension because of the capital increase after the reporting period and the need to supplement the disclosure of the 2019 semi-annual report data.

Lei Jun of Juchen Semiconductor
became the shareholder behind Juchen Semiconductor in the equity transfer of Juchen Semiconductor in July 2016. At that time, Wuhan Luojia acquired 6.56% of Juchen shares from Jiangxi Heguang at a price of 14.8464 million yuan, becoming the company's major shareholder. Wuhan Luojia's executive partner is Hubei Luojia. Looking through Qixinbao, Lei Jun, the current head of Xiaomi, has become an indirect shareholder of Juchen Semiconductor because he holds 4% of Hubei Luojia's shares.

Founded in 2010 in Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Juchen Semiconductor Co., Ltd. is a global high-tech chip design company specializing in the R&D, design and sales of high-performance, high-quality integrated circuit products, and providing application solutions and technical support services. The company currently has three main product lines: EEPROM, voice coil motor driver chips and smart card chips. The products are widely used in smart phones, LCD panels, Bluetooth modules, communications, computers and peripherals, medical instruments, white appliances, automotive electronics, industrial control and many other fields.

According to statistics from CCID Consulting, in 2018 the company was the world's third largest EEPROM product supplier and ranked first in market share among domestic EEPROM companies.

In July 2019 ,
Xiaomi's Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) invested in VeriSilicon, holding 6.25% of the shares, becoming the fourth largest shareholder of VeriSilicon. It can be said that Xiaomi's investment in VeriSilicon has strengthened Xiaomi's chip path.

Image source: Qixinbao

VeriSilicon is a Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaSTM) provider, providing IP-centric, platform-based chip customization services and one-stop end-to-end semiconductor design services for a wide range of applications in various terminal markets including mobile Internet devices, data centers, the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable devices, smart homes and automotive electronics.

Wuxi Haoda
In September 2018, Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund Partnership appeared in the industrial and commercial information of Wuxi Haoda, with an investment ratio of 6% and a subscribed amount of 40.108815 million yuan.

Wuxi Haoda Electronics Co., Ltd. is a well-known manufacturer of surface acoustic wave devices. Its main products include surface acoustic wave filters, duplexers, and resonators, which are used in mobile phones, communication base stations, LTE modules, Internet of Things, Internet of Vehicles, smart homes, and other RF communication fields. The company has advanced production lines, and currently has 3,000 square meters of Class 10, 500 square meters of Class 10, 150 square meters of Class 10, and 120 square meters of Class 10 cleanrooms. It has a production line that can produce 0.25um micro-line chips, a production line that can produce CSP flip-chip product packaging, and can produce products with a size of 1.8*1.4 duplexers and 1.1*0.9 filters.

Hengxuan Technology
In July 2019, Hengxuan Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. underwent a number of industrial and commercial changes, including Alibaba and Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund. Among them, Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund invested 4.66% and subscribed 520,833 yuan.

Information source: Qixinbao

Hengxuan Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was established in early 2015. Its core members come from well-known domestic high-tech companies. It focuses on the research and development and sales of wireless audio platform RF SOC chips, providing customers with audio system-level chips with WIFI/BT wireless connections, software and hardware development kits and complete reference design solutions to help customers quickly launch industry-leading wireless smart products.

As the leading TWS wireless headset chip manufacturer in China, the BES2000 chip launched by Hengxin is highly regarded in the mid-to-high-end TWS Bluetooth headset solution. The wireless headset products introduced into Huawei have performed very well, and Hengxin has become a major TWS Bluetooth headset chip shipment. Xiaomi is probably also interested in the chip technology behind the company and the smart Bluetooth headset market.

According to Qichacha information, Shanghai Nanxin Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. is invested by Jiangsu Zimi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Xiaomi Technology, with a subscribed capital of 1.15112 million yuan and a shareholding of 2.6257%.

A partial screenshot of Shanghai Nanxin Semiconductor’s equity penetration (Source: Qixinbao)

Shanghai Nanxin Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2015 in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Pudong, Shanghai. As a rising star in China's power supply industry, Shanghai Nanxin launched China's first full range of buck-boost battery power solutions, competing with established manufacturers such as Lingte and TI in this field, becoming the pride of China's chips. At present, Nanxin's chips have successfully entered well-known manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Haiyi and Xinwanda. The company is engaged in the research, design, development and sales of integrated circuit chips, provides application system reference design solutions, and provides related technical services. With Buck-Boost as the core, it provides users with flexible, multi-purpose, high-quality and affordable power management solutions.

Conclusion
However, Xiaomi has not given up on the path of self-developed chips. Dayu Semiconductor, which was spun off from Pinecone, focuses on the technical research and development of AI and IoT chips and solutions in the semiconductor field. Pinecone Electronics will continue to focus on the research and development of mobile phone SoC chips and AI chips. To become a great company, you must master core technologies. At present, Xiaomi's "chip manufacturing" strategy can be said to be a multi-party bet, but it must be said that Xiaomi's investment in the chip field is further strengthened, and multi-industry chain investment may help its mobile phones, IOT and other product areas as well as chip business.