The war of new energy vehicles has spread to the upstream.
Tianyancha APP shows: Recently, a number of car companies have reported that they have invested in chips. In the second half of the electrification and intelligence, car companies began to invest in a wide range of mergers and acquisitions of core parts enterprises, showing that automobile companies attach importance to improving the hard power of automobile intelligence and grasping the initiative of the first chain. At the same time, as capitalization progresses, the number of players who can stay at the table will decrease predictably and rapidly.
SAIC has made a number of investments
Guangdong Hongyixin Automotive Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. is an enterprise mainly engaged in the manufacturing of computers, communications and other electronic equipment. The company, which focuses on the design of automotive-grade digital-analog hybrid chips, has received investment from Jiaxing Chuangrong Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), a subsidiary of SAIC. Tianyancha APP displays: The company is committed to solving the technical gap and localization substitution in the field of powertrain and chassis chips.
Lipcore also recently received Series C strategic financing jointly invested by SAIC Venture Capital and Shangqi Capital. The company provides solutions in consumer and industrial electronics fields such as LED display, LED lighting, power management, lithium battery protection, and MCU, with shipments reaching 10 billion units in the past two years. In the field of automotive chips, Lipchip has planned and laid out products such as on-board controllers, automotive batteries, and automotive lighting, and built a vehicle-grade chip R&D team. Its self-designed automotive-grade power devices, lamp drivers and other products have entered the tape-out stage, and the packaging and testing factory has passed the IATF 16949:2016 automotive quality management system certification, which has strong competitiveness.
Recently, SAIC's Jiaxing SAIC Chuangyong Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Jiaxing Chuangrong Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) have completed their investment in Jiangsu Yilong Electromechanical Technology. The Company's business scope includes intelligent vehicle equipment manufacturing, electronic components and electromechanical components equipment manufacturing, auto parts research and development, industrial control computer and system manufacturing, among others.
In addition, in the hundreds of millions of yuan in Series D financing completed by Hunan Jinxin Electronic Technology, Shangqi Capital and SAIC Group's strategic direct investment** are the joint lead investors. The company is an integrated circuit design enterprise specializing in the research and development of digital signal processor (DSP) chips and embedded solutions, with advanced software and hardware design platforms and a professional high-quality DSP design team.
BYD's chip layout
BYD, which is known for its self-development in the electrification stage, has also invested in chips. Tianyancha APP shows that recently, Senodia Semiconductor (Shaoxing)** has undergone industrial and commercial changes, and the shareholders have added Shenzhen Chuangqi Kaiying Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership), BYD (002594), Shaoxing Keqiao District Zhicheng Digital Intelligence No. 5 Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership), etc., and the registered capital of the company is about 1707$240,000 to about $1,825$830,000.
Senodia Semiconductor (Shaoxing)** was established in August 2008, and its business scope includes the research, development, and design of new electronic components and micromechanical and electronic sensors, as well as the design, commissioning, and maintenance of system integration. According to public information, Senodia Semiconductor is a provider of commercial MEMS gyroscope series inertial sensor chips.
NIO's layout
NIO, which has received investment, also focuses on chip investment. NIO received two consecutive sovereign investments** in the Middle East throughout the year, with a cumulative investment amount of nearly US$3 billion, which is hard-won in the highly competitive Chinese new energy vehicle market, and plays a key role in NIO's respite and attack.
After the financial situation improved, NIO demonstrated its strength by obtaining investment and self-developed technology, and laid out the chip field.
First of all, at the 2023 NIO Day held last week, NIO released its first self-developed intelligent driving chip, the Shenji NX9031, which is manufactured using a 5nm automotive process, supports 32-core CPU, and has a computing power of more than 1000TOPS. It uses self-developed images, signal processors, and ISPs, with a processing delay of less than 5 milliseconds, a processing bit width of 26bits, and a processing capacity of 6.5 billion pixels per second. In addition, the chip also has low power consumption, high security and other performance, and has dual-chip millisecond backup capabilities.
Secondly, NIO Capital is also the co-lead investor of Jingzhan Semiconductor's C+ round of financing. According to the financing news, the amount of this round of financing is hundreds of millions of yuan, and the funds are mainly used for capacity expansion and scientific and technological innovation and research and development. Jingzhan Semiconductor is committed to providing high-quality material solutions for semiconductor and pan-semiconductor customers, and accelerating the application of GaN materials in automotive electronics and other fields. It is a third-generation semiconductor gallium nitride epitaxy leader, focusing on the R&D and industrialization of high-quality GaN materials, and has applied for more than 700 patents and authorized nearly 200 patents.
According to the data, GaN materials have application needs in the fields of new energy vehicles, data center power supplies, lidar, and vehicle infotainment systems, and play a key role in the intelligent development of new energy vehicles.
Self-development + investment, for the current Chinese new energy vehicle market, is a sharp sword for car companies with good financial conditions to stab at their friends. On the one hand, self-research ensures that it has hard power and maintains competitiveness, on the other hand, the way of investment can be enclosed to a certain extent, blocking the road of friends