According to the 2017 annual report released by Gree Electric Appliances, revenue was 148.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37%, and net profit was 24.402 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45%. This was a record high, but profits were not distributed in this period, and retained funds were used for smart manufacturing. Integrated circuits and other new industries R & D and marketing.
This is the first time since Gree Electric Appliances went public in 1996 that it has declared dividends for the third time and in nearly 11 years. This move has also caused investors to come to no avail. The annual report opened the next day. Gree's share price gapped by 9% and was approaching the daily limit.
Gree announced that it is not news that it entered the chip field. In its 2016 annual report, it disclosed for the first time that it wanted to develop a chip for independent intellectual property rights. In 2017, Gree said that it had established a microelectronics division and planned to build its own chip. Dong Mingzhu also said last year that Gree’s self-developed chips will soon be successful.
It is understood that Gree Microelectronics is affiliated to Gree Communications Technology Research Institute and is the research and development unit under the direct leadership of Chairman Dong Mingzhu. It has digital front end, digital back end, analog design, layout design, hardware design, software design and power device design. The entire R&D team covers all aspects of the entire chip design. R&D personnel all have bachelor degree or above, over 80% from 985/211 universities.
According to Gree’s introduction, for air-conditioning products, involving a variety of chips, including external chips, internal chips, compressor chips, etc., Gree has already started to make IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) in previous years. Packaging, the main chip for the air conditioning machine has been able to design, for the part can not be designed to take the form of subcontract processing. Gree's current chip is mainly based on design, to meet their own purposes.
Gree mentioned IGBT is a kind of semiconductor power device, with high frequency, high voltage, high current, easy to switch and other excellent performance, is hailed by the industry as the "CPU" of the power converter device, is the core of energy conversion and transmission. The use of IGBTs for power conversion can improve the efficiency and quality of electricity use. It is highly energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. It is a key support technology for solving energy shortages and reducing carbon emissions. It is widely used in rail transit, aerospace, and ship drives. Smart grid, new energy, AC frequency conversion, wind power, motor drive, automotive and other strong electrical control and other industrial fields.
At present, China has become the world's largest market for IGBTs, but mainly depends on imports. The market is dominated by foreign countries, Europe, America, and Japanese companies.
According to Gree's recruitment information last year, in addition to traditional positions such as digital engineers and analog engineers, the hiring positions also plan to recruit power semiconductor R&D engineers. Semiconductor power devices may be Gree’s focus on pioneering fields.
In addition, the control of inverter air conditioners will be developed in the direction of intelligence and integration, and the core chips that they control will also become more and more advanced, and their requirements will become higher and higher. Compared with the chips required by ordinary home appliances, Have a certain threshold.
Insiders pointed out that Gree's chip plan also involves an important part of the ADC (Analog to Digital Converter), ADC control chip used in 5G, short-distance interconnected communications, new energy power control, motor control of the electric vehicle, the robot is the most critical Servo control, inverter control and other fields, is a key technology in the industrial field.
The difficulty of the ADC lies in the modulo mixing. 'The digital part can be obtained with a core like ARM, and the process is enough for 28nm or even 45nm. The key lies in the analog part, the sampling accuracy of the ADC and the output control accuracy of the PWM. This is very, very critical, and it is not easy to do well. The design of this kind of chip is more complex. We must have a deep understanding of the system and the chip. 'The person pointed out that at present, Gree is actively making smart equipment upstream of the manufacturing industry. The field of products and molds is expanded. Among them, only smart equipment covers industrial robots, CNC machine tools, service robots, etc.; molds include automotive molds, home appliance molds, and high punch molds. Gree's precision molds and other companies have partnered with FAW-Volkswagen, BYD. , Foxconn and other companies reached a cooperation, Gree can provide them with custom processing and other services. At the same time, Gree's molds and smart equipment has entered the automotive, food, medical and many other fields. And now Gree partners in the automotive, mobile phones and other fields also In the development.
Therefore, Dong Mingzhu's chip is mainly referred to as industrial control chip. It is different from the chip required by ZTE, Huawei, and other communication industries. It belongs to the inevitable movement and key of normal business development, mastery of core technology, and service of its overall strategic layout. Links.
Although Gree has not yet specified the specific planning of the chip business, if the chip design industry, the investment of 10 billion yuan per year is definitely not a small number, and on the basis of its own R&D, it can also quickly enter through mergers and acquisitions and cooperation. The track, as Ali and Evergrande are currently doing, of course, takes some time and opportunities.
Dong Mingzhu said that winning the high-end chips and achieving the goal of serving the world is not a matter of enthusiasm, nor is it a joke.