In the trend of making chips in the home appliance industry, Gree is the most determined. In 2017, Gree did not pay dividends. Gree Electric's chairman Dong Mingzhu said categorically that the chip must be done. Subsequently, Gree founder Zhu Jianghong said: 'Gree do I don't have much confidence in high-end chips.'
Recently, Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Group, also said in an interview with the author: 'Someone invests 50 billion yuan to make chips. If it is really wafer, 50 billion yuan is not enough. Home appliance enterprises have high risks in jumping to strange fields, and the gap between domestic and foreign chips is large. Behind overseas for 20 to 30 years. '
In fact, Dong Mingzhu is not so irrational. Gree Electric (000651.SZ) announced on the evening of July 4 that it has invested about 400 million to 500 million yuan to further increase the shareholding of the upstream compressor company Highly. 10%. This means that in 2017 Gree does not pay dividends, about 50 billion yuan of cash is not all reserved for chips, but to cover some areas of Gree expansion.
Dong Mingzhu revealed at the shareholders' meeting on June 25 that he was still busy with the chip the day before. Gree did the chip specific how to do it, what form to take, but also the company's board of directors to discuss the decision. Strive for Gree air-conditioning to use their own next year. chip.
As the world's largest home air-conditioning company, it has always been based on the core technology of the Gree, to break the dependence of air-conditioning chip imports, determined to do the chip is understandable, and even can say that courage is commendable, but 'do not be too hasty.'
First of all, Gree has already started in the chip field. It is not difficult to replace the low-end chip. Zhang Jun, an analyst at Jibang Consulting, pointed out that Gree can already package the IGBT (power semiconductor device) itself into the IPM (power module) that must be used for the inverter air conditioner. The main chip of the air conditioner is also designed by itself. In the future, more core components will be developed. The commercial model will be self-use. Even if the cost of the chip is slightly higher than the outsourcing, Gree will ship 6000 per year. Ten thousand air conditioners, the cost is also easy to self-digest.
In the latest industrial structure of Gree displayed by Dong Mingzhu, chips and IoT devices, mobile phones, and big data are all placed in the communications equipment company. It is obvious that she hopes that in the future of Gree smart home, as the 'brain' chip itself There is control. Gree Electric has established the Institute of Communication Technology in November 2015. Therefore, Gree is not planning, but the fact.
Secondly, there are different levels of chips. The replacement of high-end chips for air conditioners is not possible in the short term. Dong Mingzhu revealed that there are several chips in an air conditioner. Gree spends about 4 billion yuan a year on the chip. Most of these chips still rely on them. Import. 'We have developed the chip, our own design is small and effective', but she also admitted that Gree's current progress in chip design is still fur.
A senior expert in the home appliance industry believes that the air conditioner chip is divided into different grades, such as the air conditioner remote control chip is a low-end chip, the price is within a few yuan, the localization is not a problem. However, the inverter chip, the host chip is a high-end chip, a piece About 15 yuan, which requires long-term technology, talent accumulation, not a year or two can be broken. Like Gree used Texas Instruments' variable frequency drive chip.
China is the world's largest air-conditioning production base, accounting for about 60% of the global air-conditioning capacity. However, at present, China's air-conditioning variable-frequency drive chips, host chips mostly rely on imports, the main suppliers include Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Japan Sa, China's Taiwan Hanzhi, etc. The IC industry needs a lot of talents, technology accumulation, once the supply exceeds demand, it will lose money. Renesas has lost money for many years, and ultimately controlled by the Japanese government. The rise of smart home, electric vehicle industry in the past two years, stimulated The demand for chips is growing, but it is not advisable to enter.
Third, the chip industry chain is very long, Gree can cut through the chip design, step by step, long water flow, and finally one day can be dripping stone. However, if you are too hasty, you will encounter tremendous pressure from the capital market.
The chip industry is actually an ecological chain. From design, manufacturing to packaging testing, there are professional companies. Like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom are chip design companies, designing chip solutions to find chip manufacturers. Chip manufacturers like TSMC and China Core International, Yangtze River Storage, do not do chip design, only do wafers. Even Apple 10 mobile phone chip is also looking for Taiwan factory OEM.
As Li Dongsheng said, the fab's investment level reached tens of billions, hundreds of billions, TCL will not vote, because there are not so many resources, but TCL will cut into the chip design in the form of light assets, recently invested in business. Soup Technology, Cambrian, will also use their chips.
Therefore, from the perspective of risk reduction, Gree is a pragmatic approach by chip design. To do high-end chip design, you can support or acquire some chip design companies. After 5-10 years, continue to design, apply, improve, and someday Maybe it will achieve a breakthrough. But if you are too eager, even if you invest 50 billion yuan at a time, you will not be able to see it immediately. Instead, as in the previous period, Dong Mingzhu said that the stock price of the chip Gree Electric Appliances fell.
Wen Weiping, chairman of Aowei Cloud Network (AVC), believes that Gree is a chip that needs to be divided into two. Home appliance companies urgently need chip support, including inverter air conditioners, inverter refrigerators and other core products. The impact of chips in them is getting more and more important. The chip itself is the most missing part of China's home appliance industry. Therefore, Gree has to make its own chip, its original intention, starting point and courage are worthy of recognition.
However, the chip industry technology update iteration speed is fast, and the investment is large, talents, capital is highly intensive. These genetic Gree does not have much reserve at present, and it is very difficult to enter the chip field, especially if it is more difficult and risky to enter the chip manufacturing process.
Of course, Gree is a listed company with a market value of over 200 billion yuan. If it is willing to take a long time to plan and prepare, and steadily advance, it is not a chance to do chips. Therefore, Gree is a chip, and it should be long-term. It is not appropriate to be too hasty.