Bitmain accelerates the layout of its spin-off edge AI chip business

As a leader in mining chips and one of the unicorns in China that has entered the cloud-side and end-side AI chip market, Bitmain's every move in the field of AI chips has attracted widespread attention. In 2018, its annual revenue reached 23 billion yuan, and its accumulated tax payments exceeded 5 billion yuan, making it the top ten fabless chip design company in the world and the second largest in China.

Since the development of AI, Bitmain has already had three generations of cloud AI chips. The latest BM1684 has significantly improved computing power and power consumption compared to similar products. However, the iteration speed of end-side AI chips has obviously slowed down.

At the Fuzhou City Brain and Northeast Fujian Informatization Strategic Cooperation Conference held on September 17, Bitmain Chairman Zhan Ketuan said that due to the different models of edge AI and cloud AI chips, the cloud focuses more on performance, while the terminal focuses more on cost and hardware and software integration, which is more difficult to implement, so it was decided to split the edge AI chip business and operate it independently.

The spun-off company has already surfaced, namely Beijing Jingshi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (Jingshi Technology). Jingshi Technology focuses on the design and development of edge AI SoC chips, and owns the rare domestic self-developed edge AI acceleration chip intellectual property - Suanfeng TPU. After the spin-off, Jingshi Technology will fully absorb Bitmain's top Asian edge chip R&D team. The team's new generation of edge AI SoC chips designed based on Suanfeng TPU will be officially released at the end of 2019.

Jingshi Technology is also accelerating its layout. At the Fuzhou City Brain and Northeast Fujian Informationization Strategic Cooperation Conference, Beijing Smart Cloud City Investment Fund initiated by Beijing E-Hualu and Liding Capital signed an investment agreement with Jingshi Technology. E-Hualu President Lin Yongjun and Bitmain Chairman Zhan Ketuan jointly witnessed the signing ceremony. This round of financing was jointly participated by Smart Cloud City Fund and Bitmain.

It is reported that this time, Ehualu and Bitmain jointly invested in Jingshi Technology, which will provide Ehualu's "Data Lake +" strategy with access to the world's top computing resources, and implant the most advanced AI chips into multiple fields such as Data Lake + Intelligent Transportation, Data Lake + Intelligent Security, etc., so that the computing power of the Data Lake strategy from cloud to end will be comprehensively improved, and the application of cloud + edge computing will be promoted. At the same time, it can also provide data storage and reuse services to Jingshi Technology and Bitmain, comprehensively improve the application analysis capabilities of AI computing power, and jointly promote the development of the AI ​​chip industry.

The reporter found out from Qichacha that Jingshi Technology was registered and established on May 7, 2019 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. The relevant information of shareholders is as follows:

Zhan Ketuan finally said that currently AI chips account for a relatively small proportion of Bitmain’s total revenue, and he expects to achieve a multi-billion dollar scale in the cloud AI market in the future. Whether Jingshi Technology’s end-side AI chip business can be promoted and implemented as scheduled will also become a key chess piece in Bitmain’s AI market puzzle.