Decrypting Arm China: China's Most Influential Chip Company Sets Its Surface in China

Economic Observer reporter Chen Yifan Shen Yiran Li Huaqing Regarding Arm and China joint venture matters, on the afternoon of May 4, an authorized representative of Arm Mail responded to the “Economic Observer” and stated: 'The joint venture company is just beginning to operate', 'Our focus is to make This new joint venture has been successful; it has developed a new Arm IP and standards that enable the Chinese market and promote local innovation and growth.

'Arm will not respond to all unconfirmed market speculations. 'About Arm's joint venture with China, a number of recent reports said that China will take control and the joint venture will seek IPO in China.

Behind Arm’s joint venture with China, Arm has deployed several initiatives in China recently. Four months ago, Arm China adjusted the company’s structure: Arm Limited no longer directly holds Andromeda Electronic Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Arm”). The equity of 'Amoy Shanghai' was transferred to Enmou Technology (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Anmol China'). The predecessor of Ammou China was Enmou Electronic Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., established in December 21, 2016.

20 days ago, Arm Limited invested US$700,000 to establish a wholly-owned trading company in Shanghai. This is the chairman and general manager of the company named Ruige Si (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Ruige Si'). Graham Stephen Budd, he is also a trustee of China and Amnesty Shanghai.

During this period, an investment platform linked to Arm was also in place. On March 20, 2018, the Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Zone Anmou Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) was incorporated. The company’s investor includes Arm. Multiple executives in China.

Earlier, Arm has completed the layout of the accelerator sector in China. It has established a wholly-owned company named "Acrespace" in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Nanjing.

As one of the most influential chip technology providers in the world, Arm is ushering in a new era in China.

Security China Architecture

The registered address of Antitrust China is located at Room 201, Building A, No. 1, Qianwan 1st Road, Shenzhen Qiangang Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Area (located in the Qianhai Business Secretary Office in Shenzhen City). The Economic Observer reporter from Qianwan Alley No. 19, Building A, in front of the sea The e-Station Service Center was informed that the so-called No. 201 Building A, No. 1 Qianwan Alley, did not exist, but was only the registered address of the company registered in Qianhai Area. The registered address of the former Haiwan District was 10, and the companies that need to register can Choose one of 10 addresses freely.

In the public information, Antim China is more like a management platform.

Arm's patent registration body in China is Arm Limited. According to the data obtained by the eye, Arm Limited has 3,307 patents and its two companies in China do not have any patents under the name of China. Established in 2002 under the name of Andromeda Shanghai, it has the copyright to develop a software development software for the Arm Developer Suite. Armstrong Shanghai holds the Arm brand.

Obviously, the cooperation between Arm and China has been in place for a long time, but the real patent is still in the hands of its parent company. Han Xiaomin is the general manager of CCID Research Institute of Integrated Circuit Industry. Before the cooperation between Arm and the Chinese government was more traditional. Industry alliance, form of talent training. ' Han Xiaomin said. Secretary General of the Semiconductor Association of Tsinghua Alumni Association, chairman of Beijing Jiuhao Electronics Liu Weidong more direct: 'Arm in China is now just a sales and technical support office.'

Arm itself does not produce chips. Its business model is IP licensing, which charges one-time technology licensing fees and royalties through intellectual property licensing. Arm has three licensing methods, which are processor, POP, and architecture licensing. It refers to authorized partner manufacturers to use Arm's well-designed processor, the other party can not change the original design, but can adjust the product's frequency, power consumption, etc. according to their own needs; POP authorization means that Arm sells the optimized processor to the authorized partner company. It is designed under a specific process to produce a processor with guaranteed performance; and the architecture is authorized by Arm authorized partners to use their own architecture, and the manufacturer can design the processor according to their own needs. Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei, etc. are all Use chips based on the ARM instruction set architecture.

Benefiting from the rise of mobile devices and the popularity of large-scale home appliances and automotive systems, chips based on the Arm instruction set almost monopolize the embedded and mobile-end markets. According to its official website, PPT for a business introduction in the third quarter of 2017, In 2016, Arm's chip technology has accounted for about 90% of the world's mobile application processor (Mobile Application Processors) market share. The company basically consists of R & D personnel, according to its third quarter of 2017 KPI provided on its official website, It has 5708 employees, of whom 4677 are technical staff, and 80% of the employees are technicians.

Arm's products are divided into three categories: smart phone series, wearable series, and internet of things series. The main business is divided into technical licenses, patent fees, and software and services. From the Q4 earnings report in 2017, only three businesses in the quarter were considered. Revenue reached 520 million U.S. dollars, of which royalty revenue accounted for approximately 57% of total revenue.

Ruigesi, a subsidiary of Arm Limited, has just been established. This is a major trading company and its main businesses include: electronic equipment, computer hardware and software, communication network equipment, import and export of office equipment, wholesale, commission agency (excluding auctions) , And provide related supporting services, own lease of the above equipment. Registered capital of 700,000 US dollars.

Incubation and investment

More noticeable is the layout of Arm in China over the past few years. Under the huge Internet of Things and driverless market in China, many people in the industry believe that Arm should step up its layout in China. 'At present, Arm has a potential Competitor RISC-V', RISC-V is a completely open source instruction set that can be used free of charge. India has defined this instruction set as a national instruction set. 'If China also turns to RISC-V, Arm will be quite passive, not as good as Earlier actions. 'The two founders of RISC-V, John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson, both currently work at Google, serving as Chairman of Alphabet and Google Researcher, respectively. Lin Xiao, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation, said that Android is Google’s, if Android decided to support RISC-V, it would be a great blow for Arm. Han Xiaomin also agreed with Lin Xiao’s point of view.

In fact, Almighty Shanghai has already started Arm's business layout. Starting in 2015, Arm opened its incubator in China, the investment management platform and the development process of industrial funds. In 2015, Beijing Anchuang Space Technology Co., Ltd. Create Space ' ) was established.

According to the website of Antron Accelerator, Arm Accelerator is the only global accelerator for Arm, focusing on innovative service platforms for the artificial intelligence and Internet of Things industries.

Anchuang has been committed to helping technology-driven innovation and entrepreneurial companies to accurately link ecological resources, investment institutions, sales channels, and promotional channels, and provide one-stop in-depth acceleration services; Helping the capital market connect with the most investment potential innovation teams, and tapping early quality projects Helping large companies find innovative projects that they need, accelerate project landing, and make a true innovation engine; Help foreign advanced technology landed in China, and domestic projects in foreign channels, focus on international cooperation and exchanges, and promote global innovation.

The Chinese partner of Anchuang Space is Zhongke Chuangda Software Co., Ltd. (stock code: 300496, hereinafter referred to as 'Zhongkechuangda'). Zhongke Chuangda holds 40.08% of shares, and is the largest shareholder. The actual controller is Zhao Hongfei.

Another shareholder with 20% equity is Shanghai Jumou Information Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership). Antron Shanghai owns the remaining shares.

Shareholders of Shanghai Jumou can be traced back to Mankun and Yang Yuxin. Yang Yuxin is the vice president of China Kechuang. Before that, Yang Yuxin also served as the mobile computing market manager for Asia Pacific in Arm, responsible for the promotion of the Arm mobile computing market in the Asia Pacific region.

Mankun invested in Shanghai Anmu Information Technology Co., Ltd. with Yang Yuxin through its wholly-owned Shenzhen Anchuang Technology Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Anchuang Investment'). Yang Yuxin then invested with Shanghai Anmu Information Technology Co., Ltd. Shanghai Jumou Information Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership)

According to the statistics of the Tianma search, Beijing Anchuang Space Technology Co., Ltd. has invested in 17 foreign companies, including entrepreneurial space companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Nanjing, and Chongqing.

At the meeting of the Spacetron Accelerator in September 2015, Wu Xiong'an, Executive Vice President of Arm Global and President of Greater China, commented on the accelerator's mission and business model. 'Accelerators will have a variety of flexibility from the business model. Emphasis is on Arm’s powerful ecosystem, which can be used as one of the commercial sources of accelerators through the support of industrial partners. It is also very flexible to launch products through equity, product sharing, and service fees, and also to accelerators. Provides a space for business model growth.

The above-mentioned full-funded Anchuang Investment has occupied a key role in the investment layout of Anchuang.

Anchuang Investment manages multiple investment platforms, including Shenzhen Anchuang Technology Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership); Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area Anchuang Growth Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as 'Anchuang Growth'). Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area Anchuang Win-Win Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as 'Anchuang Win-Win') and Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area Anmou Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership).

Among them, the largest is Anchuang Growth, a partnership incorporated on September 4, 2017. One of the gold owners can be traced back to Kehua Real Estate (China) Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Kaihua Real Estate'). ). Kaihua Real Estate through indirect control of Shenzhen Guochuang Kaiyuan Investment Center (Limited Partnership), investing in Anchuang win-win. On March 27, 2018, Anchuang added a total of 480 million yuan to increase capital. Anchuang is a win-win situation. One of the sources of funding for growth, but the amount of investment has not yet been made public.

The company's investment platform also includes senior executives of Arm China. This platform is the Anmei Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) of Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area. According to the information of Tianma investigation, this partnership was established on March 20, 2018. The enterprise is basically funded by Arm Chinese executives.

Joint venture logic

Arm China's layout does not stop there.

In mid-2017, he began to seek joint ventures in China and received consultations from the Arm China team. Analysts who did not want to be named stated that the attitude of the other party was 'hoped to form a deeper cooperation model than usual'. It was planned to set up a fund company in China to invest in Chinese companies. This was used as a plan in two plans.

For the latter proposal, analysts said that from the experience of technology-based foreign-funded companies that were previously known, there are not many cases of acquiring companies through the establishment of funds outside the system. Most of them adopt the method of directly acquiring companies.

At the time, Arm's proposal to establish a joint venture company was analyzed and said that this would become one of the channels for China to acquire Arm's core technology. In this regard, Han Xiaomin, general manager of CCID's Integrated Circuit Industry Research Center believes that Arm's position in the industry chain lies. From the perspective of joint ventures, Arm is unlikely to deepen its core technology to China. Lin Xiao, a senior researcher at the Institute of Automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also believes that Arm, as a provider of instructions, provides a framework for acquiring this technology and upgrading Chinese chips through joint ventures. Ability is not necessarily linked.

The official website of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China stated that on January 24, 2017, the China Investment Corporation, the Silk Road Fund, Temasek Singapore, Shenzhen Shenye Group, Hopu Investment and Arm Company jointly initiated the establishment of the Hou'an Innovation Fund in Beijing. The article stated that the Hou'an Innovation Fund is managed by the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property provider, Arm, and Hopu Investment and settled in Shenzhen. The fund will combine Arm's global industrial ecosystem, focusing on investment in mobile Internet, Internet of things, and artificial intelligence. There are many potential technology companies in key areas.

On May 14, 2017, Arm signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Hou'an Innovation Fund in Beijing to plan to establish a joint venture in Shenzhen. The company plans to build an integrated circuit core intellectual property (IP) development that is important to China and controlled by the Chinese side. Service Platform.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission's official website, in November 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission approved China's State-owned Capital Venture Capital Fund Co., Ltd. to invest in the Hopu-Arm Innovation Fund project of the Cayman Islands.

According to the address of the Shenzhen branch of Arm's official website, Room 3501, Room 3501, Building 3, Kerry Plaza, No. 1-1, Center 4th Road, Futian District, Shenzhen, was found to be a doorway sign, Envision Electronic Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Company. After the reporter entered the office area, a staff member said that he would not accept the interview. 'You're looking for the wrong place.' The reporter found that at the office, there was 'Qianhai Houhou Technology Investment Management (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.' Signage.

On May 3rd, the reporter went to the office address of Hopu Investment Management Co., Ltd., located at Beijing Financial Street. The company’s staff member stated that the company had no official website and did not accept media interviews.

For this joint venture, Han Xiaomin believes that as a system project, based on the deep cooperation between the underlying technology and personnel training, it can help China's autonomous controllable server field. This time it is different from the original intention of the Sino-foreign joint venture market sales. Pattern.

As for the news of the IPO of the Arm China JV, it was at the beginning of China’s emergence of Unicorn’s IPO policy. From the perspective of capital returns, 'If this is true, this split of China’s business will greatly benefit Softbank, which will benefit Arm.’ Liu Weidong said in an interview with a reporter on May 3rd that the current share of Arm in the Chinese market has been almost monopolized, and there is no need to expand its market share through the establishment of a Chinese joint venture company.

In July 2016, Japan Softbank announced the acquisition of Arm at a price of £24.3 billion. Many analysts said that the acquisition of Arm to enter the Internet of Things is a "gambler" for Sun Jung. The reporter asked the Softbank Company about the situation by e-mail. , As of press time, did not receive a reply. Softbank Mailer automatically responded to show that his office was closed from May 2 to May 6, and began processing mail on May 7.

For the topic of the joint venture company, a person who authorizes PR's public relations company told this newspaper: 'The Chinese partner's shipment of Arm IP's chips has increased by more than 110 times in 10 years.'

'The Chinese market is not only very large, but also unique and different from the rest of the world. In order to allow Arm technology to benefit more local Chinese companies, we need a Chinese partner to develop Arm that can obtain a local license in the Chinese market. Compatible technology. At the same time, Chinese companies are also more inclined to purchase technology developed by Chinese companies. Therefore, through the establishment of the Arm China joint venture company, tailor-made solutions for Arm-based semiconductor intellectual property (IP) will be tailored to suit the domestic ecosystem in China. The plan provides a more comprehensive technology portfolio for Chinese partners to meet the needs of the Chinese market. The joint venture company is committed to providing localized support for the Chinese market and local innovation, expanding the market and providing more opportunities.

2016 GoodChinaBrand | ICP: 12011751 | China Exports