Qualcomm may not have reacted so far, he has been the boss for so many years, how was he "stolen chicken" by MediaTek.
Qualcomm miscalculated, and MediaTek won
On December 1 last year, Qualcomm released the world's first 4nm chip - Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Qualcomm outperformed not only Huawei, but also Apple. Almost everyone feels that qualcomm has "won the numbness" again this time, even Qualcomm officials have unceremoniously said: "This is currently the world's strongest mobile phone processor", and this time, the world's strongest position, Qualcomm sat for 15 days. On December 16, MediaTek used its new chip Tianji 9000 to give Qualcomm a loud slap.
In more than 6 months, MediaTek went from 6nm to 4nm
There is almost unanimous view in the industry that the Tianji 9000 already has the strength to wrench wrists with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Even in terms of CPU frequency, power consumption, and heat generation, the Tianji 9000 running score exceeds the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. But why has MediaTek made so much progress in a short period of time? You know, MediaTek's last chip, Tianji 900, has just been released for more than 6 months, and this chip is still a 6nm chip. What is the concept of 6nm? At that time, Huawei, Apple, and Qualcomm were all 5nm chips, and MediaTek lagged behind a whole generation.
For more than 6 months, MediaTek directly skipped 5nm, launched a 4nm chip, and has been able to wrench wrists with "a brother" Qualcomm in terms of strength, what has MediaTek done in the past 6 months? In fact, MediaTek, overthrowing the "Qualcomm Dynasty", only used three moves.
The first trick is to take down TSMC
To this day, there are still only two companies in the world that can realize 4nm chip FOUNDC - TSMC and Samsung. At that time, Qualcomm and TSMC were not very happy because of patent fees. In addition, TSMC went to the United States to set up a factory, and was "put together" by the old United States into the entity list. Therefore, the two sides have not reached a consensus on the issue of 4nm chip FOUNDC. At this time, MediaTek threw an olive branch to TSMC, not only giving a higher offer, but also considering giving priority to TSMC in the OEM of 3nm chips. In this way, MediaTek won all of TSMC's 4nm foundry orders.
Both are 4nm, how big is the gap between Samsung and TSMC
Although they are all 4nm processes, in fact, there is a gap between Samsung and TSMC in terms of strength. Samsung's 4nm process, the number of transistors is only 2/3 of TSMC, is to improve performance through technical adjustments, in fact, Samsung's 4nm process is only TSMC's 6nm EUV level, which is also an important reason for the serious heat of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The new chip still has the old problem of heat, which makes the reputation of the Snapdragon chip once again hit hard. MediaTek also took the opportunity to rise and won many old Qualcomm customers.
The second trick, under the heavy reward, there will be brave men
The word "grab" is definitely not excessive, just look at MediaTek's investment in employees and talent last year. Not long ago, MediaTek released some internal information of the company. We can see that MediaTek's employee salaries last year were NT$5.14 million (1.124 million yuan), a 50% increase compared to 2020. MediaTek has made great efforts in recruiting talents last year, recruiting 3,000 outstanding talents from around the world last year and planning to continue to recruit 2,000 talents this year.
Qualcomm has been laying off employees in recent years, and on April 20, 2020, Qualcomm announced that it would lay off 1,500 employees in many places in the United States, and these personnel are basically technical core talents. Qualcomm's official explanation is that in order to cope with qualcomm's difficulties, this layoff can help Qualcomm save $1 billion;
In the same year, Qualcomm's data center business ushered in layoffs, and the media reported that "Qualcomm's data centers across the country have laid off a total of 538 employees";
Last December, when Qualcomm and MediaTek were in fierce competition, Qualcomm announced that it would lay off about 600 jobs worldwide.
The third trick is to feed high-end chips with low-end chips
The reason why MediaTek can quietly develop a 4nm chip, and having sufficient grain and grass is one of the important reasons, only when you are full can you talk about your dreams. Although MediaTek has not rushed to the high-end market in the past few years, MediaTek's life is not bad. The low-end market has basically become the "stage" of MediaTek. MediaTek's annual smartphone market accounts for more than 40%, which makes MediaTek's profits have been very healthy.
In contrast, Qualcomm in recent years, put all the attention on the high-end chip market, for the low-end market pay little attention, with the Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and other flagship machine performance has been overturned, for Qualcomm's revenue has caused a very serious impact.
It's only a matter of time before you accumulate and get back
What MediaTek was doing in the past, now Huawei is also doing, and surpassing Qualcomm can also be. In the case of serious impact on the mobile phone business, Huawei did not give up its investment in HiSilicon, and last year Huawei's R&D investment reached 142.7 billion, ranking second in the world. Not only that, Huawei is also recruiting a large number of talents around the world, with a total of 26,000 talents recruited in the past two years, including 300 talented teenagers. Ren Zhengfei fulfilled his words: "Employees are Huawei's most important wealth", I believe that under such efforts, Huawei will soon make a comeback.
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