According to a comprehensive report from Micronet, in the past 10 years, the price of semiconductor wafers has been declining due to oversupply. However, since the beginning of 2017, the situation has undergone a major reversal, and the supply quotation for silicon wafers has exceeded the demand. The outlook for the future has skyrocketed. With the continuous expansion of production capacity of Samsung wafer makers and other major manufacturers in the Yangtze River, and Yangtze River storage and other mainland manufacturers will mass-produce in the first half of 2019, silicon wafer prices will continue to rise, and orders for silicon wafer manufacturers will continue into 2020. .
It is understood that from the beginning of 2017, the supply of silicon wafers is in short supply, pushing up the overall offer price by about 20%. The main reasons for the increase in silicon wafer prices are reflected in two aspects: the Internet of Things, the Internet of Things, storage, AI, and bits. The explosion of applications such as coins boosted demand for semiconductors. On the other hand, the top five global manufacturers did not plan to expand their production capacity. This caused the market conditions of silicon wafers to shift from overproduction to supply shortages and drastically increase prices.
It is worth noting that due to the quarterly price surge of silicon wafers, the foundry's gross profit margin will be affected. Among them, TSMC previously stated that due to the signing of the annual contract, the price of silicon wafers will increase in 2017. Small, about 0.2% of the gross profit margin, but the price will continue to rise in 2018, and the impact may increase to 0.5~1 percentage point. The market expects that due to the signing of the long-term contract, the big manufacturers will have less impact on the current price increase, but it will re-emerge in 2019. After negotiating, the gross profit margin loss will probably increase, while the second-line factories GlobalFoundries, the world's most advanced, UMC, SMIC, and the mainland Yangtze River Storage and other manufacturers will be hit harder than expected.
New wafer fabs in mainland China will boost demand for silicon wafers
At present, in the semiconductor silicon wafer market, foreign giants occupy a major market share. Among them, including Japan's Shin-etsu Semiconductor, Japan's SUMCO, Taiwan Universal Crystal, Germany's Silitronic and South Korea's LG, including the world's top five Manufacturers occupy 90% of silicon wafer market share.
SUMCO, the world’s second-largest silicon wafer maker, previously stated that in the 12-inch silicon wafer segment, prices are expected to rebound by approximately 20% as expected in 2018 (Q2 price will be higher than 2016 Q4 in 2018). 40%), and it is estimated that the price will continue to rise in 2019. The current customer's concern is to ensure that the required quantity can be obtained, and consultations on contracts after 2021 have begun.
In the 8-inch segment, the increase in supply is limited, and in the future there will be a tight supply and demand situation in the future. Customers will have a better sense of crisis in purchasing 8-inch silicon wafers than 12-inch products. In the 6-inch segment, the current supply shortage situation appears. Although prices have risen, the long-term outlook is uncertain.
It is worth mentioning that, thanks to the continuous price increase trend of silicon wafers, the performance of TAICO's stake in Taiwan Sembcorp is very bright. It is understood that Taiwan Seiketsu was established in 1995 and is a joint venture between Formosa Plastics and SUMCO. The stocks were 38% and 46.95%, respectively, and they mainly produced 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafers, which accounted for 40% and 60% of the revenue respectively. The customer base was wafer foundry and memory factories.
In the legal seminar held by Taiwan Sembcorp, Zhao Rongxiang, deputy general manager, said that at present, Taiwan Seiketsu's 12-inch monthly production capacity is 280,000, and 8-inch monthly production capacity is 320,000. The demand for silicon wafers continues to thrive. The bottleneck is to increase production efficiency. It is estimated that there will be double-digit growth in the quotation in 2018. The supply and demand will be tight until 2020, and the price will rise all the way.
Zhao Rongxiang further pointed out that the visibility of Taiwan Seiketsu's orders has reached 2020, and that the major kinetic energy comes from the newly built wafer fabs in the mainland, which will drive the demand for silicon wafers to increase. It is expected that the demand for 2017-2020 will increase by 1.35. Times; The memory factory, currently undergoing expansion includes: Hynix expands 150,000-month production capacity in Wuxi, while Samsung expands monthly production capacity of 100,000 units in Xi’an, and Hefei’s Ruili will also have new production capacity. In addition, Fujian Jinhua and Wuhan Yangtze River Storage are slower than expected, but are affected by the Sino-US trade war. Mainland China has accelerated the development of semiconductors. Jinhua and Changjiang Storage in Fujian have accelerated production and will have production capacity of 4,000 to 5,000 in the future. Move toward 10,000.
Domestic 12-inch, 8-inch wafer production capacity
Wafers are the most important upstream raw materials for wafer fabs. It can be said that upstream silicon wafer materials are controlled by people, and it has become an impetus for industrial development in Mainland China, which has rapidly developed the entire IC industry.
According to the report of China Merchants Securities, in terms of 12-inch silicon wafers, as of November 2017, the demand for 12-inch silicon wafers in China is 450,000 (including Samsung Xian, SK Hynix Wuxi, Intel Dalian, and Xiamen Core). Crystal integration, TSMC Nanjing and Gexin Chengdu successively put into production. Together with Nanjing, Changxin Hefei and Jinhua integrated three major memory chip factories, it is estimated that by 2020 China's 12-inch wafer monthly demand will be 80- 1 million tablets.
At present, China's 12-inch silicon wafers mainly rely on imports, but the planned monthly production capacity has reached 1.2 million, and all of them can be successfully mass-produced in the future, which can basically meet domestic demand.
Among them, China Central (002129.SZ) signed "Strategic Cooperation Agreement" with Wuxi City on October 13, 2017 to jointly build a large silicon wafer production and manufacturing project in Yixing City. The total investment of the project is about 3 billion U.S. dollars. The first phase of the investment was approximately US$1.5 billion; Shanghai Xinsheng (300236.SZ), which is a shareholder of Shanghai Xinsheng, has already achieved bulk supply of blanks, and it also has small batches of samples to achieve sales. The current production capacity is 4-5 million tablets/month. It is expected that the production capacity will reach 100,000 tablets/month in 2018; Chongqing Super Silicon's 12-inch wafer development progress is also relatively smooth.
In terms of 8-inch silicon wafers, as of the end of 2016, China’s total production capacity for 8-inch silicon wafers and epitaxial wafers has a monthly capacity of 233 thousand wafers/month, and the actual capacity utilization rate is less than 50%. The output of 1.2 million 8-inch silicon wafers only meets domestic demand of 10%. From the currently announced capacity, the monthly production capacity of 8-inch silicon wafers has reached 1.4 million, totaling more than 1.6 million wafers, far exceeding our country's The monthly demand for 8-inch silicon wafers is 800,000 tablets.
2. Unstoppable wafer foundry prices surge, chip makers' profits are squeezed;
Gathering micro-messages (Text/Xiaobei) TSMC looks at the cooperative relationship with its customers, and its foundry offer is stably pursued. However, in the event of rising upstream wafer costs and shortage of 8/12-inch wafer capacity, TSMC will To increase the price of foundry foundry. As the world's foundry boss, OEM prices have always been the lack of room for bargaining. It is reported that TSMC's 8-inch wafer production capacity can not meet customer demand in the short term; In addition, TSMC will import Apple in the second half Processor orders, which will occupy the vast majority of TSMC's advanced manufacturing capacity.
To Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the second-tier wafer foundry brewing up quotations This year, the Internet of Things, automotive electronics orders have flocked to 8-inch wafer fabs. This has led to an apparent shortage of 8-inch wafer foundry capacity. Second-tier wafer foundries other than TSMC have also encountered rising upstream wafer costs, and production capacity is in short supply. Therefore, they are rushing to upgrade the wafer foundry prices.
It is reported that second-tier wafer foundries in China and Taiwan have formally issued price notifications to chip customers in the second half of 2018. Taiwan's IC design company revealed that the price of OEMs for 8-inch wafers rose by 20 to 30% in the third quarter, except for VIPs. Outside the customer, most chip manufacturers can only accept price increases.
It is worth noting that why the second-tier foundries collectively promoted this price increase because the price rise of second-tier foundries was higher than that of first-tier foundries such as TSMC. This could be from two. In terms of dimensions, on the one hand, there is a strong demand for foundry and some orders have to be transferred from first-tier foundries to second-tier foundries; on the other hand, the price of foundry prices will increase more than raw materials, etc. Upstream cost increases, second-tier foundries collectively promoted this price increase, downstream customers can only accept price increases. Industry experts said that UMC, SMIC and Hua Hong will be the main wave of this foundry surge in prices Beneficiaries.
Wafer foundry price increases, downstream chip makers are under pressure According to the usual experience, the rising cost of foundry costs can be transferred to downstream chip makers and promote chip prices. However, in this wave of price increases, downstream chip makers may not be able to digest and absorb the rising prices of upstream chips. Price kinetic energy.
According to the usual practice, for IC chip companies, as long as customers do not require a 5 to 10% reduction in chip prices per quarter, the upstream costs will increase and pressure will be easily absorbed. For the first-line IC chip companies, they can even take advantage of the upward trend. The price strategy shifts cost increases to downstream customers.
China's domestic IC design companies and Taiwanese IC design companies are madly robbing the market. If Taiwan's IC design companies adopt a price-adjustment strategy, they will transfer the pressure of rising costs to downstream customers. It is very likely that most mainland customers will be lost. Therefore, Confronted with this up-stream cost-rising trend, Taiwan's IC chip company is likely not to adopt a price increase strategy and maintain a conservative attitude towards its gross margins outlook for the third quarter of 2018.
According to Taiwan LCD driver IC makers, the short-term 8-inch foundry production capacity is obviously insufficient, the company has chosen to use 12-inch wafer foundry to ease the lack of 8-inch supply capacity, but because of 12-inch wafer foundry The price will be 20~30% higher, so it will have a certain impact on the company's gross profit. The follow-up will communicate with the downstream customers depending on the situation, hoping to transfer the rising costs.
For MediaTek, who hopes that the gross profit will return to 40%, it will also face the pressure of increasing the cost of upstream foundry industry. Industry experts speculate that MediaTek may choose to self-digest the upstream manufacturing costs given that MediaTek and Qualcomm and Spreadtrum have violently smashed the situation. Increase, rather than choose to increase the chip price strategy. (proofreading / Xiaobei) The 3.3D NAND market 'war' continues, 140 layers will be far behind?
Set micro network news (text/Aki), how much market demand for 3D NAND, from the fierce competition in this market is evident!
On May 29, 2018, the Korean media reported that Samsung plans to increase the current share of 64-layer 3D NAND products in 2018, and this year it will first mass-produce 96-layer 3D NAND products in the factories in Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek. Plans to take the lead in the competition and start investing in mass production of 128-layer 3D NAND.
Samsung’s move may completely ignite the ongoing war of NAND Flash’s high-level stacking market. The memory manufacturers in the United States, Japan, and South Korea will all participate in the war. The fierce competition in the market is even more difficult. Imagine.
'War' Continuous 3D NAND Flash
In the second half of 2017, 3D NAND manufacturers competed for mass production.
Samsung started mass production of 64-layer 3D NAND and used the new Pyeongtaek plant to increase production. Micron also promoted 64-layer 3D NAND smoothly. Toshiba and Western Digital began mass production of 64-layer 3D NAND in the second half of 2017.
At the same time, in order to reduce the production cost of NAND Flash and improve the competitiveness of products, memory manufacturers in the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries have recently accelerated the development of higher layer stacking and QLC four-bit cell storage products.
For example, Toshiba, the second largest global NAND Flash maker, announced in June 2017 with Western Digital that 96-layer 3D NAND using BiCS4 technology has been completed. Now, with the sales of Toshiba Semiconductor, it is widely believed that Toshiba will make rapid progress in NAND Flash in the future.
On the other hand, the NAND Flash products jointly developed by Micron and Intel also recently reported the successful development of 96-layer 3D NAND.
As for SK hynix, in July 2017, it began to mass-produce 72-layer (fourth-generation) 3D NAND flash memory chips. Although SK hynix currently ranks behind in the NAND Flash field, SK hynix also decided to complete it in 2018. 96-layer 3D NAND product development.
Will the number of 140-layer 3D NAND layers be far behind?
At the recent International Storage Seminar 2018 (IMW 2018), Applied Materials introduced the roadmap for the development of 3D NAND in the coming years. It was mentioned that it is expected that by 2020, 3D memory stacking can achieve 120 layers or more. In 2021, it can reach more than 140 layers, which is more than double the current mainstream 64 layers.
At present, all manufacturers are making greater efforts in 3D NAND to increase their own flash memory storage density.
As mentioned before, Toshiba and Western Digital have planned to mass-produce a new 96-layer BiCS4 memory chip this year. Samsung is also developing a QLC NAND chip, which will achieve the 96-layer target in the fifth-generation NAND technology.
3D NAND technology is now widely used. Its design is contrary to 2D NAND. The memory cells are not in one plane but are stacked one on top of the other. In this way, the storage capacity per chip can be significantly increased. No need to increase the chip area or reduce the unit, using 3D NAND can achieve greater structure and cell gap, which is conducive to increase product durability.
However, 3D NAND technology also means that increasing the storage space requires increasing the number of stacked layers. The increase in the number of layers also means that the requirements for the process and materials will increase, and a new foundation must be used to achieve 140-level stacking. material.
In addition, when the number of stacked layers increases, the height of the memory stack also increases. However, the thickness of each layer decreases. The stack thickness of the previous 32/36-layer 3D NAND is 2.5 μm, and the layer thickness is approximately 70 nm. The flash stack thickness is 3.5μm, the layer thickness is reduced to 62nm, the current 64/72 layer flash stack thickness is about 4.5μm, the thickness of each layer is reduced to 60nm, and to the 140+ layer, the stack thickness will increase to about 8μm, each pair The stacked layers must be compressed to 45-50nm, and the stack thickness will be 1.8 times the thickness of each upgrade, and the layer thickness will be 0.86 times the original thickness.
With the continuous increase in the number of 3D NAND layers, the technical difficulty can be imagined!
QLC technology or will force
In fact, the way to reduce the production cost per unit of capacity also includes improving the data storage unit structure and controller technology.
At present, the structure types of memory cells are divided into the following types: SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC.
SLC single-bit unit (each cell stores only 1 data), because of stability, so the best performance, longest life (10W times the theory can be erased), the highest cost, is the earliest top particles. MLC double bit Units (each cell stores 2 data), life (theory can be erased 1W times), the cost is balanced in several particles.
TLC three-bit unit (each cell stores 3 data), low cost, large capacity, but shorter life expectancy (the theory can be rewritten 1500 times), is currently the most mainstream product in flash memory.
QLC four-bit unit (each cell stores 4 data), lower cost, larger capacity, but shorter life (150 times theoretical erasable), want to be replaced by TLC products still need to solve many problems.
However, recently, Micron and Intel have taken the lead in adopting QLC technology to produce 3D NAND with a capacity of up to 1Tb and a stack of 64 layers. Currently, this product has been used for SSD shipments. Micron and Intel emphasized that this is the industry's first high-density QLC NAND. Flash.
Although Samsung has completed QLC technology research and development, Samsung may be based on strategic considerations. If it is to commercialize it too fast, the current product prices may decline, and Samsung is the NAND Flash and SSD market leader, and there is no hurry to QLC. Reasons for commercialization. As for Toshiba, it is planned to use QLC technology in 96-layer 3D NAND products.
In the future, if NAND Flash products use QLC technology that can store 4 four-bit units, it is expected to store about 33% more data than TLC technology. However, as the amount of stored data per storage unit increases, the lifetime will also decrease. To improve the shortcomings in this area, memory manufacturers still need to overcome many problems! 4. China is dissatisfied with DRAM rising too fiercely, Passing Luchang to Samsung, SK Hynix;
South Korea's two major memory manufacturers, Samsung and SK Hynix, were interviewed by the anti-monopoly authority of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, and were asked to reduce the memory prices of Chinese technology companies.
South Korean media KoreaTimes.com reported that last year's skyrocketing memory prices drastically eroded the profits of Chinese smartphones and PC factories. The Chinese government demanded that Samsung and SK Hynix lower their prices apparently for this purpose. According to statistics, 75% of global DRAM supply is under control. In the hands of Samsung, SK Hynix.
There are other motives behind the Chinese government’s search for Korean storage partners. It is speculated that it should be related to the cross-licensing of technologies. People familiar with the matter pointed out that although Samsung and SK hynix have all set up factories in China, the technology behind the products has lagged behind the Korean factory. At least two generations, and very few cross-authorizations, made China feel dissatisfied. In the future, there should be other means for this.
In addition to Samsung and SK Hynix, the United States memory factory Micron has recently been interviewed by the Chinese antitrust authorities, and the reason is also related to memory prices. According to DRAMeXchange statistics, the world's first quarter DRAM revenue season increased by 5.4%, rewrite history New High. Elite News
5. The demand for DRAM/NAND memory continues to increase. South Asia Branch, Wanghong's performance is promising;
With the advent of the Internet of Things, data centers, high-speed transmission of 5G are valued, and the research unit pointed out that the demand for DRAM and NAND Flash for assisting computing operations has also continued to increase. South Asia Branch (2408) said recently that this year's DRAM market Still in short supply, driven by the upward movement of memory ethnic groups, Wang Hong (2337) received the same attention in the warrant market, and topped the transaction amount yesterday (29) days.
Although South Asian Branch yesterday's stock price closed small, fell 0.4%, to close at 98.9 yuan (NT, after the same), but the foreign capital counterattack knocked in more than 2,000, quite bargain to accept the meaning.
In the first quarter of this year, South Asia Branch’s earnings per share (EPS) amounted to 2.39 yuan. As the DRAM market continues to be in short supply, this year’s overall operating performance is well-founded. Although this year’s earnings from non-industry sources have been low, Nanyake believes that the environment is conducive to the development of the company. , still confident to pay good results. South Asia Branch is expected to benefit from the increase in 20-nanometer output, stable product prices, revenue is expected to rise month by month to the next quarter, and will have the opportunity to rewrite the new card.
Wang Hong's stock price rose by 0.73% yesterday, and closed at 48.6 yuan, with a turnover of more than 48,000, and was awarded more than 700 letters to buy.
Wanghong continued to be a popular stock in the stock market. Over the past year, the daily turnover has exceeded 10,000 sheets, and it has once exceeded 210,000 sheets. It has made extraordinary achievements and made Wanghong become the darling of the warrants market; According to statistics and observations of securities companies, nearly two Zhou appeared similar to the phenomenon of foreign buying intervention in the warrant market last year. Wanghong was the subject of a large percentage of operations.
The legal person stated that based on previous years' experience, Wanghong was often the off-season operating season, which was after-tax net profit of 1.882 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, more than 8 times year-on-year increase, and the EPS reached 1.06 yuan, also a 7-fold increase over the same period of last year. , Operating performance is very bright.
The legal person pointed out that Wanghong's 55nm NOR Flash shipment momentum was stronger this year. This quarter, the high-capacity NOR Flash price is also expected to continue to rise. Business Times
6. Strong demand for semiconductor equipment Jingding Kunshan Plant to increase equipment expansion capacity;
Semiconductor Equipment Factory Jing Ding (3413) held a regular meeting yesterday (29th), and distributed 6.5 yuan dividend per ordinary share this year. Jingding chairman Liu Yingguang stated that the cross-strait semiconductor industry is actively expanding its production and the demand for semiconductor equipment and spare parts is booming. This year, there is still room for growth in business operations and optimism about the economy. Furthermore, Liu Hai-Guang believes that after Hon Hai’s participation in the semiconductor industry, there will still be great cooperation between the future and Jingding. space.
The Beijing Ding shareholders’ meeting yesterday passed the recognition of last year’s financial report. Benefitting from the orders received from the world's largest semiconductor equipment factory, plus multiple growth in equipment shipments, Jingding’s consolidated revenue increased by 4.2% year-on-year to 8.168 billion yuan. The company's net profit after tax increased by 50.6% year-on-year to 1.363 billion yuan, synchronizing the record highs with a net profit of 13.63 yuan per share.
The Beijing Ding shareholders' meeting yesterday also distributed 6.5 yuan dividends this year for common stocks, including a 6.0 yuan cash dividend and a 0.5 yuan stock dividend. Jing Ding said that with artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) The rapid development of applications such as IoT will lead the semiconductor market to continue to grow. SEMI forecasts that in 2018, the global fab equipment spending will increase by 11% year-on-year, which will be a record high of US$63 billion, which will also drive the growth of equipment industry and output value. In addition, China has actively built 12-inch wafer fabs in recent years, and this year it has begun to enter the installed phase, which will also increase equipment expenditures.
Jingding is developing in response to the market conditions of semiconductor equipment. Kunshan Plant has expanded its production capacity with additional equipment. The production capacity has been gradually put into operation in the first half of the year, and the production efficiency will be seen quarter by year. At the same time, Jingding is also optimistic about the industrial opportunities in fab automation and make good use of automation equipment. The accumulated electromechanical integration technology for many years and the familiarity with semiconductor manufacturing processes have successfully upgraded the performance of existing automation equipment, such as controlling wafer process environment and preventing micro-pollution engineering capacity upgrading, and continuing to develop next-generation, more advanced, next-generation nano-processes. Equipment, and launched a series of active micro-pollution prevention and control solutions, has been adopted by leading manufacturers of wafer foundry.
Jingding's consolidated revenue for the first quarter rose by 29.8% year-on-year to 2.272 billion yuan, net profit attributable to the parent company reached 240 million yuan, and net profit per share was 3.05 yuan, which was better than market expectations. The second quarter of operations is expected to maintain high grade. Liu Yingguang stated Jingding still has room for growth in its operations this year and still holds an optimistic view. In the next few years, the mainland fabs will gradually start production, which will bring faster growth momentum to the equipment and spare parts market.
Recently, the Hon Hai Group will expand its distribution to the semiconductor industry. Hua Han of Hon Hai Group announced that it will acquire a stake in the semiconductor plant and equipment factory. Liu Yingguang stated that the group has a certain breadth and depth of considerations. Jingding and Huahan have good communication. The pipeline, there is almost no competition and conflict with the sail propaganda, there is much room for cooperation in the future.
7. Artificial intelligence business opportunities 2030 reached 15.7 trillion US dollars;
Artificial intelligence has become a market researcher. It is estimated that by 2025, global AI business opportunities will reach US$230 billion, grow at a high rate of 45% annual compound growth rate, and increase significantly in 2030, and the overall scale will have the opportunity to surge to 15.7 trillion US dollars. And to vehicle, medical, consumption as the main three application market.
Fubon Securities pointed out that AI investment applications are booming, including smart speakers, face recognition, self-driving technologies, etc., have gradually integrated into daily life, and gradually change the future industrial structure and ecology. Although the main AI core technology is currently in the United States and China. In the hands of the country, however, the implementation of AI technology requires the cooperation of hardware foundries such as computing chips, components, and system assembly, and the related supply chain of Taiwan plants will not be absent in this wave of trends.
Intel believes that AI technology can be used to accelerate the judgment of different diseases in the medical field. For this reason, Intel also holds an algorithm competition. It hopes to screen out cervical cancer in advance and hand it over to the hospital for final diagnosis and check.
Intel said that the key factor in promoting AI medical applications is where to obtain information and who will participate in the competition. The Kaggle platform has more than 200,000 data scientists assembled. The common goal is to find good algorithms and find Intel chips. What can be improved is that, in addition, it cooperated with Alibaba to conduct lung cancer screening in mainland China. Through computer tomography reconstruction, it was re-adjusted to 3D image recognition to improve the accuracy of interpretation.
Heart disease ranks at the top of the current human mortality rate and is one of the most important issues for Intel. Previously, Japan has taken the leading edge in ECG detection equipment. However, as AI applications gradually introduce image recognition capabilities, mainland China will continue to integrate hardware and software. , Establish a new business model that can pass test data from the mobile phone to the cloud, identify 40 kinds of disease prompts by artificial intelligence, and then cooperate with the hospital system to form a complete medical service.
AI Revenue Service Plus 55%
It can be seen that artificial intelligence is changing the ecosystem of various industries and analyzing the current AI business model. The main income has been changed to 15% from software, 30% from hardware, and the other 55% from value-added services. Big cash flow.
In addition, in the driverless applications, the market expects that self-driving cars will occupy a place in the global automotive market within 10 years, artificial intelligence will be the main reason for its vigorous development, and promote the market of unmanned cars of up to $127 billion.
Taking nVidia as an example, artificial intelligence technology specifically designed for driverless cars has been developed, and 25 automakers and technology companies have received orders to start the layout of related market applications in advance.
The link between AI and the Internet of Things is generally based on the analysis of data in the cloud. However, in terms of cloud transmission speed, the response speed of self-driving cars is not fast enough. Therefore, there is a need for an Edge device between the cloud and the home. That is, the concept of marginal operation, this equipment can be placed in factories, machine rooms and other places, to speed up the speed of regional operations, but also will bring demand for terminal equipment.
Amazon, Google launched the Echo series and Alphabet voice assistants for the layout of AI in home consumption applications. It entered the smart speaker market and expanded advertising sales for e-commerce platforms. Lenovo believes that artificial intelligence technology is in the vertical domain of various end users. The increasing number of applications, especially the improvement of consumer services, is a major factor driving the growth of the AI market.