In 2012, Xiong Weiming joined Huachuang Capital as a partner, focusing on technology companies, leading the investment in love pen intelligence, Jing Chi Technology, Shenzhen Science and Technology, Mecmande, wisdom tooth technology, special praise and other projects.
At the end of 2016, Huachuang Capital Frontier Technology Group was formally established. Xiong Weiming is the leader.
China Venture Capital's Chinese startup Shen Jian Technology and US startup ScaleFlux are companies in the chip field. Shen Jian Technology is the supplier of artificial intelligence technology's underlying chips. The company has developed a chip called DPU; while ScaleFlux is based on Storage technology company doing IO acceleration.
Huachuang Capital's investment in chip-related companies is mainly seen in the application of artificial intelligence, showing great demand for chip semiconductors.
Attitude toward investment chip transition due to artificial intelligence application landing
Compared with other investors' cautious attitudes, Huachuang Capital has begun to see opportunities in the semiconductor chip field in recent years.
Xiong Weiming told Sina Technology that in the past, Huachuang Capital sees a lot of work in the chip industry, the work is not particularly solid, and some VCs are not necessarily suitable. And many end markets do not support, and they spend a lot of energy to do the so-called innovation. All are talking on paper.
According to Xiong Weiming, the semiconductor process technology in the United States is far ahead of China, and it is difficult for China to catch up. Because from the perspective of the history of semiconductor development, the United States has taken the lead. Since 1958, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory , is a division of Beckmann Instruments Inc., was the first organization established to manage the manufacture of semiconductor devices, and later evolved into Silicon Valley) began researching semiconductor research chips.
In the past two years, Huachuang Capital’s view on the chip industry has changed. Xiong Weiming pointed out: 'This is because we see a wave of artificial intelligence. There are very real applications. Moreover, ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) This field is completely different from the previous storage or memory market, or the CPU market competition, this market is completely domestic.
Especially in the field of security, the domestic market is very large. Xiong Weiming believes that security-related artificial intelligence applications are very clever and can shake one area of the Chinese semiconductor industry:
First, it can use very modern manufacturing processes and does not need to chase the world’s most advanced high-tech technology.
Secondly, the market for its final application is at home, and it is determined that the supply chain is in the country. This product can be changed at any time according to changes in the customer's needs.
Third, the sensitivity of the industry led to its inherent shielding of some overseas design house and chip manufacturers.
Compared with the sharing economy, the chip industry is not so expensive
The large amount of investment in the chip field and the slow return period make investment institutions prohibitive.
Compared with other fields, the semiconductor industry does have its own unique place. Xiong Weiming believes that the reason for the value of semiconductors is that they can form a scale. The cost of making a semiconductor may be 200 US dollars, but if you do 10 million, it may be a point. The amount of money will become cheaper when it is more expensive. Therefore, semiconductor is an industry with significant economies of scale.
The semiconductor industry is different from the current hot-sharing economy. It is a core technology. Xiong Wei-ming believes that some Internet giants 10 years ago did not actually have core technology. Everyone is also reluctant to invest in core technology because core technology is far from business.
However, semiconductors are the core science and technology, and semiconductors are equivalent to the internal organs of humans. 'If your internal organs are not good, implanted, or not working, then your appearance with the best cosmetics is not very easy.' Xiong Weiming It is believed that Chinese companies have been investing in the cosmetics industry before. He compared the Chinese internet industry in a certain period of time to the cosmetics industry. 'On the surface, it looks very advanced, but in fact it doesn't really go in.'
It is said that chip R&D investment is too large, so the investment cost is high. But Xiong Weiming told Sina Technology that the investment cost of the chip industry is not too high today. He explained: 'Today I think the sharing economy is burning too much money. A bicycle rental business costs 3 billion U.S. dollars. Of course, capital depends on its revenue. Now, compared to the chip industry, it's not costly. Everyone thought it was expensive 10 years ago. It invested 10 million U.S. dollars and 20 million U.S. dollars. Because the previous fund was also worth 100 million U.S. dollars, the size of the fund is now much larger, and the entire industry is also radical. Therefore, in this respect, the chip industry is no longer so expensive.
Semiconductor products in security, electric vehicles, etc. will lead other countries
In Xiong Weiming's view, the application of artificial intelligence falls to the ground and requires the underlying hardware products to keep pace with it. This is the opportunity for the chip industry.
Xiong pointed out that China is not the largest PC market, but a very large mobile Internet market. However, there are some problems in the mobile Internet market. For example, many components of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers come from Japan, the United States, etc. In calculations and other aspects, I think it may be difficult for China to have a particularly strong ability to catch up.'
However, domestic artificial intelligence is a good entrance. Apart from security, image analysis and traffic management, China is the largest market. In Xiong Weiming's view, where China is the largest market, semiconductor products in this area will Is the world's leading semiconductor product.
In addition, Xiong Weiming believes that many new devices in China's electric vehicles may have advantages, and this market is also very large.
'I think that semiconductors must be a mature industry. There must be resources for some big companies. Big and small companies need to work hard. The entire industry may only get up. VC alone is not enough.' Xiong Weiming concluded.
The future chip industry will be more and more entrepreneurial
After experiencing ZTE, China's high-tech industry is rethinking. Xiong Weiming believes that it is estimated that there will be more and more startups in the chip industry in the future.
When everyone is aware of the importance of the semiconductor industry, it will take time and effort to invest in it. 'People are very worried about saying that semiconductors are all in their deaths. Therefore, everybody in the semiconductor industry is unwilling to start a business, or everybody starts a business and does not make money, and the valuation is very low. And then what to sell something is better than Tuoteng Semiconductor's money. No one cares about semiconductors. Let everyone think that being the core technology is the Golden Avenue, everyone will be willing to spend time. ' Xiong Weiming said.
The state has been encouraging private capital to enter the chip industry, but it is obviously not enough. Xiong Weiming also suggested that future development still requires a strong tilt in national policies, such as subsidies on taxation, talent introduction, etc.
For companies that invest in business models, they still invest in technology start-up companies. According to Xiong Weiming, they all have to invest. Companies that are driven by the first phase of the business model are more likely to start the business. After the application end leads, they will have to be technologically advanced. Appeal.
Xiong Weiming pointed out that if there are no companies that invest in business models, not many people ride bicycles and no one pays by mobile phones. No one uses mobile money to pay for everyone. Perhaps the hottest company should be an ATM company. It should not be WeChat or It is Alipay. So it is very important to invest in the business model driven company. It is very important in the application layer.
"Now we are already the world leader at the application level, so we need to make up for core technology." Xiong Weiming told Sina Technology that 'we need to keep our core technology in our hands, and only master the core technologies like mastering atomic bombs.' Just like the high-speed rails, core technologies with core components will not be out of control. In the event of a resurgence in ZTE, we have at least alternative options. I think this is a problem that China may need to address next.'