On May 21, Konka Group held the 38th Anniversary Celebration and Transformation and Upgrade Strategy Conference in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The strategic conference fully demonstrated Konka's transformation route and revealed that the transformation of Konka will enter the semiconductor industry. Last month, Gree Electric It will be laid out in the integrated circuit industry.
In just over a month, the two large home appliances giants clearly revealed their ambitions for 'making core'.
Konka wants to layout multiple links in the semiconductor industry
Zhou Bin, president of Konka Group, stated at the press conference that Konka's new strategy has restructured its business structure by building a 'science park business group', an 'industrial product business group' 'platform service business group' and an 'investment finance business group'. Large-scale business group, to achieve the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure. Konka's goal is to complete the revenue target of 60 billion at the end of the "Thirteenth Five-Year" and complete the revenue target of 100 billion yuan in 2022.
At the press conference, Konka Group announced the newly established Environmental Protection Technology Division, Semiconductor Technology Division, which is Konka's first announcement of its entry into the semiconductor industry.
In addition to the establishment of the business division, Konka also clearly stated the development goals for semiconductors: Within 5-10 years, it has become one of the top semiconductor companies in the world and is committed to becoming the top 10 semiconductor companies in China with annual revenue of more than 10 billion yuan.
Zhou Bin told Nanfang Daily that according to the plan, Konka will focus on several key areas in the semiconductor industry, including memory chips, IoT devices, and optoelectronic devices.
Zhou Bin also stressed that at present, in the semiconductor industry chain, the wafer chip segment has attracted a lot of investment, but Konka will not be excessive efforts in this area. In polysilicon, single crystal, silicon, wafer lithography, design , Closed and measured these links, Konka will pay attention to, in addition to wafers, and other may be layout investment. However, Zhou Bin did not disclose Konka investment in the semiconductor industry.
Gree or chip manufacturing, IC first annual report
Coincidentally, the recent announcement of 'into the 'semiconductor industry, there are white giant Gree.
Last month, when Gree released its 2017 annual report, it stated that 'the company expects to have large capital expenditures in terms of capacity expansion and diversification in the future. In order to seek long-term development of the company and shareholders' long-term interests, the company needs to make appropriate capital reserves. The company's retained funds will be used for the development of production bases, smart factory upgrades, and new technologies such as smart equipment, smart home appliances, and integrated circuits.
This is the first time that the term 'integrated circuit' has officially appeared in Gree's annual report, which means that Gree Electric will next develop integrated circuits.
In a recent interview with the media, Gree Electric Chairman Dong Mingzhu also said: 'Even if we invest 50 billion yuan, Gree will have to succeed in chip research. When we can master the chip, and if we can take down the high-end chip, we It can serve the world. '
In April 2016, at the World Micro-Commerce Conference, Dong Mingzhu had clearly stated that Gree was studying chips and set up the microelectronics department last year to create its own air-conditioning chips.
It is reported that Gree Microelectronics is a subsidiary of Gree Communications Technology Research Institute. This is the research and development unit under the leadership of Dong Mingzhu. It has a digital front end, a digital back end, analog design, layout design, hardware design, software design, and power device design covering the entire area. A complete R&D team for all aspects of chip design. It is based on Gree's one hundred billion consumer electronics market, focusing on smart home, internet of things, processor and advanced security SoC chip development.
Industry Positioning 'Upgrade' Tests Enduring Patience
At this year's CES exhibition and AWE exhibition, Konka exhibited its own research and development of 8K image chips, while also exhibiting 75-inch 8k TV, the product will be 8K 60P signal integrated in a data line for transmission.
Gree related persons once pointed out: 'We basically have no problem in the supply of air-conditioning source parts. The integrated circuit has already been encapsulated by IGBT. The main chip of the air-conditioner internal machine can already be designed, but many chip designs have been designed. It was commissioned for processing, and it has not been treated as an industry.
As it said, in fact, some home appliance companies like Konka, Gree, etc., have already started chip R&D before this, but they have not upgraded the semiconductor chip industry chain into an important strategic sector for consideration. Konka, Gree’s open position, can be described as In the company's internal positioning for the chip manufacturing upgrade again. However, the choice of real breakthroughs, persistent investment and other challenges will follow.
At present, Gree did not disclose in detail what exactly the firepower is concentrated in which part of the chip manufacturing. Home appliance analyst Liang Zhenpeng told reporters that in the air-conditioning industry, control of inverter air-conditioning chip, few Chinese companies can do it, control the inverter air-conditioning chip With a very high technological content, Gree may focus on this aspect.
Even if we identify the target, we still need time and patience. Huawei has developed mobile chips for more than a decade. As early as 2005, it developed its own baseband. In 2009, it introduced the mobile phone chip K9. However, K9 eventually failed due to various reasons. The subsequent K3V2 Compatibility problems and heat problems occur until the Kirin 920 chip, which was introduced in 2014, became the first perfect chip.
'Semiconductors do not happen overnight. They can't be achieved quickly, but they can be protracted.' In this regard, Zhou Bin also frankly stated.
Acquisition of small and medium-sized technology companies Or an important path
In the mobile chip field, Apple's A-series chips are powerful. But in reality, Apple's A-series chips were commissioned by Samsung to design and manufacture. In 2008, Apple acquired mobile chip technology through the acquisition of startup company PAsemi. Since then, Apple has continued to invest, spent several years, until 2012 until the launch of fully self-developed A6 processor (A4 on the basis of Samsung S5PC110 improvement, A5 on the basis of Samsung Exynos4210 improvement).
Capital investment in the chip industry can be described as 'astronomical'. According to the IC Insights report, global semiconductor company R&D investment has been in the top ten companies for two consecutive years: Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Samsung (Samsung). ), Toshiba, TSMC, MediaTek, Micron, and SK Hynix. Their R&D spending each year starts at more than a billion U.S. dollars, or even as high as ten billion U.S. dollars.
Leading semiconductor industry Intel spent $13 billion on research and development last year. In domestic flash memory plants and memory factories, the Yangtze River's investment in storage is 24 billion U.S. dollars, and Ziguang Nanjing's DRAM factory investment is 10.5 billion U.S. dollars.
The huge amount of capital investment also means that some small and medium-sized enterprises with advanced R&D technologies may encounter funding difficulties at some stage of development. For Konka and Gree, they learn from Apple's experience and push forward through acquisitions. Independent research and development process may also be an important path.
After all, like Konka, Gree's home appliance giants do have a certain amount of resources and financial advantages, although at present neither of them has a clear capital investment plan.
Zhou Bin believes that Konka has a certain advantage for industries with large investment and long-term cycles. Generally, market-oriented companies do not dare to make such investments, but Konka’s backing to OCT and government funds can make it profound in this industry. Layout.
Dong Mingzhu declared that Gree Electric has a high profit rate, which is far higher than the average profit rate of the household appliance industry. It is entirely possible to use 10% of it for research and development. Gree Electric Appliances invested 10 billion yuan this year, and invested 10 billion yuan next year for three years. I invested 30 billion yuan, and even after three years I invested 50 billion yuan.