In addition to BYD, Lenovo has invested in 22 chip companies

Lenovo Group announced its investment in the chip field on its official WeChat account yesterday. Lenovo said that the news of its strategic investment in BYD Semiconductor some time ago attracted attention in the industry, but in fact this is not the first time Lenovo has invested in a chip company. Since its establishment, Lenovo has invested in 23 chip companies with core competitiveness. For example, Lenovo Capital, a subsidiary of Lenovo Group, invested in Cambrian, SmartWise, and CoreChips, and Legend Capital and Lenovo Star, a subsidiary of Lenovo Holdings, invested in Spreadtrum Communications, Fudan Microelectronics, Lingming Photonics, Yuguang Technology, and Bosheng Optoelectronics.

Lenovo pointed out that some of the businesses of the chip companies it invested in are consistent with Lenovo's 3S strategy, such as AI chip company Cambrian, while others represent Lenovo's ambition to lay out the future, such as autonomous driving car chip company Xinchi and IoT chip company Zhongke Wuqi.

It is worth noting that Lenovo mainly makes overseas investments through Lenovo Capital and Incubator under Lenovo Group and Lenovo Group's parent company Lenovo Holdings. (Note: As early as 2001, after Liu Chuanzhi split Lenovo into two and established Lenovo Holdings, Lenovo Group became part of the Lenovo system. Its parent company is Lenovo Holdings, a comprehensive investment company.) Among them, Lenovo Capital and Incubator, as a global technology industry fund under Lenovo Group, was officially established in 2016 and focuses on future-oriented core technology and smart Internet investment. The current investment directions are mainly: IoT, edge computing, cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, vertical industries, consumer upgrades, etc. In the chip field, Lenovo Capital and Incubator has invested in 10 companies, namely: Cambrian, Smartsens, Coresmart, Huaxing Semiconductor, Zhongke Wuqi, Ruisi Zhixin, Suzhou Huiwen, Onrui Microelectronics, BYD Semiconductor, and Yuguang Technology.

Image source: Lenovo official WeChat

Lenovo Holdings has not directly invested in the chip field, but its subsidiaries Lenovo Star and Legend Capital have both made investments in this field. Lenovo Star is mainly engaged in the field of AI applications + optical chips, and its representative projects include Lingming Photonics, Yuguang Technology, and Bosheng Optoelectronics.

It is worth mentioning that in the field of chip investment, Legend Capital is a pioneer, and its investment in this field has lasted for more than ten years. At present, Legend Capital has invested in more than ten chip companies. Among them, Spreadtrum Communications, Parade Technologies, Fudan Microelectronics, and Apex have been listed, and Shanghai Huahong, Berkana and other four companies have exited through mergers and acquisitions. In addition, Legend Capital has also invested in Eswi, Fortior, Mouxin Technology, Xinyi Microelectronics and other companies.