The Xiaomi SU7, which has exploded the circle of friends, was finally delivered some time ago.
The explosion of Xiaomi cars is inseparable from its breakthrough in intelligent driving technology.
In terms of hardware configuration, Xiaomi SU7 is equipped with dual NVIDIA Orin-X chips, whether it is autonomous driving, intelligent parking or remote control, it has shown strong technical strength.
For the current new energy vehicle market, intelligent driving is undoubtedly the core technology field of intelligent electric vehicles, and in this field, NVIDIA's position can be said to be almost monopolized, and no one can surpass it at present.
Today, I want to introduce to you the leading intelligent driving chip known as China's Nvidia and is IPO in Hong Kong stocks - Horizon.
Intelligent driving chips urgently need to be localized
China is the world's largest market for advanced driver assistance and advanced autonomous driving solutions, and the market size will grow from 24.5 billion yuan in 2023 to 407 billion yuan in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 49.4%, slightly exceeding the global level.
The number of chips required for an intelligent car is as high as more than 2,000, which is four times that of ordinary fuel vehicles.
The intelligent driving chip is like the "brain" of the human being, controlling all the "behaviors" of the entire car. Especially in today's intelligent, autonomous driving, and digital era, chips have become more important for a car.
However, behind the rise of smart cars, the autonomy of automotive chips in mainland China is a big problem. At present, the localization rate of China's new energy vehicle chips is only 10%, and 90% of automotive chips still need to be imported, which will pose a huge risk to the long-term development of China's intelligent new energy vehicle industry.
The hope of localization of smart driving chips
Founded in 2015, Horizon has grown into the only Chinese company among the top five providers of advanced assisted driving and high-level autonomous driving solutions in China in eight years.
In addition, Horizon is also the second largest provider of advanced driver assistance solutions for local OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in China, with a market share of 21.3%. As of December 31, 2023, the top 10 Chinese OEMs are all Horizon customers.
In the top 10 of the installed capacity of intelligent driving domain control chips in 2023, the market share of Horizon's three chips is 11.4%, which is the domestic manufacturer with the highest market share.
Horizon's Journey series chips are the only automotive-grade AI chips that have achieved front-loading mass production in both autonomous driving and intelligent cockpits, and a total of 5 million have been delivered so far.
It is highly recognized in the industry
At present, among the automotive-grade chip manufacturers, only Mobileye, NVIDIA, Tesla FSD and Horizon products have been tested by the market, and China's intelligent driving chip market is now mainly dominated by Nvidia and Horizon.
Horizon has a large global customer base, including industry-leading OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
In 2022, China's mid-to-large SUV sales champion, the ideal L8 is equipped with chips for the Horizon Journey 5.
Horizon has not only established a close cooperative relationship with Ideal L8, but also reached in-depth cooperation with Volkswagen, Audi, BYD, NIO, Nezha Automobile and many other car companies.
Not only that, behind the horizon, there are also Yunfeng Fund, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital, Wuyuan Capital, Swedish Private Equity Company, Baillie Gifford, a century-old fund in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Jiantou Huake with the background of central enterprises.
This is enough to see how recognized Horizon is in the industry.
However, the competition in the intelligent driving market is becoming more and more fierce, and peers such as Huawei and Black Sesame are also accelerating market expansion.
On March 22, Black Sesame Intelligence, which is also a leading smart driving chip, once again submitted an application for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The promotion battle of "the first share of intelligent driving chips" started immediately.
Horizon has fared even better
First, let's look at operating income.
From 2021 to 2023, Horizon's revenue will be 467 million, 906 million, and 1.551 billion respectively, an increase of 232% in three years. And black sesame increased from 61 million in 21 years to 312 million in 23 years, an overall increase of 411%.
Not only is the revenue scale of Black Sesame not as large as that of the horizon, but the gross profit margin is not at the same level.
From 2021 to 2023, Horizon's gross profit margin has always remained at a high level of 70%, while Black Sesame's gross profit margin has decreased from 36.1% in 2021 to 24.7% in 2023.
From the status of the industry to the performance, Horizon has been the first among domestic enterprises, and Black Sesame still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up.
Why Horizon's revenue and gross margin are so high
R&D capability is a very important factor.
Horizon is a company that attaches great importance to research and development, which is precisely the most important in the hard technology track.
From 2021 to 2023, Horizon's R&D investment will be 1.143 billion, 1.879 billion, and 2.366 billion respectively.
Accounting for 245%, 207.6%, and 152.5% of operating income respectively, that is to say, Horizon spends almost twice as much money on R&D every year.
The money is mainly used to recruit R&D talent.
Among the 2,066 people in the team of Horizon Robotics, the R&D team accounts for 1,478 people, accounting for more than 71%, of which 74% have graduate degrees.
It is worth mentioning that the founder of Horizon, Dr. Yu Kai, is a scientist with 25 years of R&D experience in the field of computer engineering.
It is under his leadership that Horizon Robotics will continue to increase its investment in key technologies such as data and algorithms in this intelligent driving market, which was mainly dominated by foreign companies in the past, in order to maintain its continued competitiveness.
To borrow a phrase from Dr. Yu Kai, "In the rare window period of industrial development of smart cars, China has a good chance to give birth to world-class Windows, world-class operating system companies, and world-class chip companies in the future." ”
Perhaps Horizon has the hope of becoming that world-class chip company.
summary
With the rapid development of smart cars, autonomous driving chips have ushered in the best era. As the leader of intelligent driving chips, Horizon has played a great role in the localization process of automotive chips, and has the financial support of BYD, Volkswagen Group, Sequoia Capital, Jiantou Huake, etc., and has broad development prospects.
Not only that, Horizon also attaches great importance to research and development, and the company's innovation ability and product competitiveness will continue to enhance in the future. In short, the future growth of Horizon is still very good.
The above analysis does not constitute specific investment advice. The stock market is risky, and investors need to be cautious.
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