Chips have always been the brightest pearl in the semiconductor industry and the most famous product in the semiconductor industry. At present, we are familiar with mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung, Apple, Huawei and so on. Samsung has its own Orion chip, Apple has A series chips, and Huawei, a private enterprise in the mainland, has Kirin chips, all three types of chips are world-renowned mobile phone chips.
Recently, a mainland company announced that it had abandoned the research and development of chips, and Huawei's CEO Ren Zhengfei also expressed great distress, so what is going on? Let's take a look.
First, the cold winter period of mainland chips
The semiconductor industry has always been a relatively backward industry in the mainland, and one of the most well-known and widely used products is mobile phone chips, which can be said to be the heart of every mobile phone. And it is this heart, which is the place where the mainland has been stuck in the neck for a long time. Although the mainland has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources over the years, and its core technology has also developed to a certain extent, it is still unrealistic to exceed the international level in a short period of time.
Previously, the news of the US sanctions against the mainland private enterprise Huawei was overwhelming, although the mainland private enterprise Huawei can launch its own "spare tire plan" to minimize the losses caused by the US government sanctions, but after all, the United States is the leader of the global chip industry, the influence is very huge, Huawei has also suffered a heavy blow here, which is also the only company in the mainland that can supply its own products with self-developed chips. The Kirin chip developed by Huawei's HiSilicon Group is self-sufficient for all Huawei products.
After Huawei was severely sanctioned by the US government, other private mobile phone companies in the mainland chose to collectively lose their voice, because they did not have the ability to compete with the US government, and they were afraid that the stick of US government sanctions would be waved on themselves. And such a mobile phone company announced its own research and development of chips, but on May 12 this year, it announced that it abandoned the research and development of chips, this company is OPPO.
Second, OPPO gave up chip research and development
We all know that if a mobile phone company wants to develop its own chips, it will set up corresponding research and development companies, Huawei is HiSilicon, and OPPO is Zheku. It exists for OPPO's chip self-development, a company that also carries the hopes of the entire Chinese, including Huawei, for Chinese chips, which many consider to be a descendant of HiSilicon. Unfortunately, now it has chosen to give up.
Many people wonder why OPPO will give up the research and development of chips, do they feel that they have not been sanctioned and choose to import foreign chips for use? In fact, OPPO also wants to have its own self-developed chips, and does not want to be stuck in the neck of foreign countries, but the biggest problem is that the funds required for self-developed chips are too large, and the profit cycle is very long, which is very fatal for a private enterprise. Since OPPO began to announce self-developed chips, OPPO has been in a loss-making state, and the capital turnover has been unsustainable, so it announced the abandonment of self-developed chips.
As OPPO announced that it would abandon self-developed chips, OPPO's research team of more than 3,000 people specializing in self-developed chips will all be disbanded, and the AP chips researched by this company will also be forced to be suspended, and the economic pressure on OPPO will become smaller, but self-developed chips are stillborn before OPPO comes out.
Third, where will the mainland's chips go?
From the time when the mainland began to pay attention to the chip industry, up to now, there is still only one company in the mainland that can use self-developed chips, that is, we know Huawei, but Huawei's current situation The people of the whole country know that they have been suppressed by US sanctions.
Before the establishment of HiSilicon, Huawei only had chip design and research capabilities, but not production capabilities, and the chips used in Huawei mobile phones were produced by Taiwan's TSMC. However, TSMC is a Taiwanese company, plus most of the United States behind it controls and uses American technology, so TSMC cannot OEM chips for Huawei. It is precisely because of such a difficult experience that Huawei established HiSilicon and looks forward to the birth of more chip self-research companies.
OPPO's announcement to abandon chip research and development is tantamount to giving the mainland chip industry a headshot. Countless people regret it, but everyone should pay more attention to the problems behind OPPO's abandonment of the chip industry. The United States can now be said to decide the life and death of the mainland chip industry, once the US government chooses to put the mainland chip industry to death, then what should the mainland do? Where should these mobile phone companies in the mainland go?
epilogue
The chip industry, as the most brilliant pearl, is the mainland has been backward place, the state has now also established relevant institutions, provided a lot of funds to support, but the effect time is too long, a short period of time has not improved. We also hope that more private enterprises can join the self-research team, who will be next?