Huawei's chip technology was discovered and plagiarized in time when it was about to enter the mass production stage, which caused great concern in the domestic science and technology community. Huawei's timely discovery avoids potentially huge losses and demonstrates its expertise in chip technology.
The dust settled, and the company involved was exposed as a "new enterprise" to steal Huawei secrets, involving 14 people. However, the real culprit behind the incident is not simple.
Surprisingly, Xiaomi has become the biggest victim in this turmoil, which has caused people to think deeply. How exactly was this company revealed? Is there something to do with Xiaomi behind this incident?
Let's explore it together.
This year, Huawei launched an industry-leading WiFi7 router. As the setter of global WiFi technology standards, Huawei once again took the lead with the latest chip technology.
Globally, Huawei has made great contributions to the industry with its WiFi6 technology to achieve fast, secure, and stable wireless network connections, and has accumulated a large number of patents and trade secrets, bringing huge profits to Huawei.
If other companies develop similar chips without Huawei's permission, they may be at risk of infringement. WiFi7 is more advanced than WiFi6, it is not only highly technical, but also has a wide range of applications, covering smart home, Internet of Things and other fields, which can meet users' high requirements for high-speed network and stable connection.
In order to develop this chip, Huawei has invested a lot of resources to keep it at the forefront of the technology field.
It was originally intended to lead the industry and be the first to try the new technology, but what Huawei did not expect was that competitors were already ahead of the curve and had even begun mass production.
This sense of powerlessness to be surpassed made Huawei deeply puzzled, so they began to delve into the competing products and found that the chip structure of the competing products turned out to be a copy of Huawei's HiSilicon chips.
Once competitors complete all the processes first, Huawei could lose hundreds of millions of market share. This makes one wonder what is the origin of this duplicate competitor company, which can imitate Huawei's technology so accurately.
After an in-depth investigation, Huawei found that the background of the company that developed the same chip was very suspicious. The company has only been established for two years, as an emerging communication company, committed to the research of high-performance full-ecological smart scene chipsets and solutions for homes and enterprises, and its technical strength in the field of router AP chips does not have much advantage compared with domestic general enterprises, so Huawei strongly doubts the company's chips**.
A company that has been established for a short time has not only received the lead investment from Gaorong Capital, but also received an angel round of financing of nearly 100 million yuan from Jiangbei Jiakang Technology. In the process of the rapid development of Zunpai Communications, it is reported that the company has attracted many Huawei core employees to change jobs at this stage.
This raises the question of whether the departure of these employees will have a direct impact on Huawei's technology R&D secrets.
After eight months of silence on the alleged theft of Huawei's chip technology, the Shanghai Public Security Economic Crime Investigation Corps released an update on the case. As expected, it was confirmed that there was a theft of secrets, and there were four main culprits behind it.
As the case gradually uncovers, the real mastermind behind the theft of Huawei technology is shocking. Although Zunpai Communication has been established for a short time, its founder Zhang is a highly qualified figure.
He has more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and has served as a senior technical director and senior technical expert.
Under Zhang's leadership, the company has developed a number of chips, and even one chip has sold more than billions.
This senior talent who has reached level 21 at Huawei is highly recognized by the company for his business capabilities. Huawei has a strict hierarchy within Huawei, and the higher the number, the higher the status.
It has been revealed that the highest level within Huawei is level 22, which shows that Zhang Kun's position during his tenure at Huawei is very important, and he has a deep understanding of Huawei's internal technical secrets.
Although he left Huawei in 2021 for personal reasons, his departure did not stop his business development. His choice of semiconductor industry is a perfect match for his professional background.
However, it is regrettable that after leaving the company, Zhang Kun used high salaries, equity and other means to induce many Huawei employees to jump to his company, and let them illegally obtain key technical information about Huawei chips.
If it weren't for these actions, Huawei might not be able to sanction him.
Although the research and development of chips is a project that burns money and has a long payback period, Zhang has absolute ability in semiconductor technology, and he chooses to bring himself and more than a dozen colleagues into the industry to seek breakthroughs.
However, the new chip of Zun Surging Communication was found to have 40 technical points that are highly similar to Huawei, which also makes Zhang have to face doubts and criticism from the outside world. However, Xiaomi Group officially said that the relevant rumors were not true and made a solemn clarification.
After investigation, the company's frozen funds were as high as 95 million, although its registered capital was only 3.3 million and it was only 2 years old. Xiaomi, as a shareholder of Zunpai Communications, has also been affected to a certain extent.
Xiaomi has invested in Zunpai Communications through its 100%-owned investment company, Hanxing Venture Capital***, but this does not prove that Xiaomi has any connection with Zunpai Communications' theft of Huawei's chip technology.
Despite this, Xiaomi has issued an urgent statement denying that it is the earliest investor, the largest investor, or the dominant investor in several rounds of funding.
Globally, Huawei, as a national enterprise in China, is a local brand that we can be proud of. However, it has been under the watchful eye of countries such as the United States.
The reason why our semiconductor industry has been able to achieve what it is today is through continuous trial and error and exploration, one step at a time. However, Zhang, a former important figure of Huawei, did not hesitate to use illegal acts to steal core technologies, which is indeed deeply despicable.
What's even more worrying is that, according to Zhang's personal information, he has obtained U.S. citizenship and has worked in the U.S., which raises questions about his motives and loyalty.
This incident sounded the alarm for the whole Chinese people, and the success of China's chip technology is facing a crisis behind it. Whether it is Huawei or other technology companies, they should take it seriously and not ignore the potential threat posed by stealing patents.