China's chip autonomy process is accelerating
Breakthroughs have been made in self-developed chips
In the process of China's chip independence, some major breakthroughs are quietly being born. The Institute of Optoelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently developed an ultra-highly integrated optical convolution processor, marking a milestone in the research and development of optical computing chips in the field. This chip integrates millions of optical computing units, with computing power equivalent to hundreds of thousands of CPU cores, and has broad application prospects in image recognition, big data processing and other fields.
The performance of chips independently developed by some Chinese companies is also constantly catching up with the international advanced level. Taking Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 9000 series chips as an example, its single-core performance and GPU performance have surpassed the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip in the same period. SMIC's 14nm process chips can also meet the needs of most low-end mobile phones and IoT devices. Continental still has some shortcomings in chip manufacturing processes and design tools, and there is still a certain gap compared with international giants.
Domestic substitution of chips is accelerating
In order to speed up the process of chip independence, China is vigorously introducing advanced chip manufacturing equipment. China has reportedly imported several high-end lithography machines from the Netherlands, which are one of the most critical pieces of equipment in chip manufacturing. With the support of these devices, Continental is expected to make breakthroughs in the research and development of advanced process chips of 3nm and below.
Chinese customers are also no longer interested in chips with lower performance, and rely more on self-developed chips to replace imported chips. Taking mobile phone chips as an example, in the past, Chinese manufacturers would choose to use low-end chips from Qualcomm or Samsung, but now they prefer to use their own developed chips to get rid of their dependence on foreign chips.
Huawei amplifies its moves to break through the blockade
In the tide of chip autonomy, Huawei is undoubtedly the most high-profile member. The newly released Mate 60 series phones are equipped with Huawei's self-developed Kirin 9000S chip, which claims to surpass Apple's A16 processor in performance. This move is seen as a major "killer feature" for Huawei to break through US sanctions.
In addition to mobile phone chips, Huawei has also set its sights on the automotive and operating system fields. At the beginning of this year, Huawei launched its self-developed Zhijie S7 car, which is aimed at competitors such as Tesla. Although the model is still being "sold at a loss", Huawei executives said that it will be profitable when sales come up in the future. Huawei also intends to abandon Android altogether and instead vigorously promote its own HarmonyOS to reduce its dependence on Google.
Flagship models are priced lower
The price of its previous flagship phone, the Mate 50 series, has fallen off a cliff after Huawei's enlarged move to break through the blockade. Due to the release of the new Mate 60 series, the price of the Mate 50 series mobile phones on major e-commerce platforms has continued to fall, and some models have even dropped to the price of 100 yuan machines.
One of the most exaggerated is the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, which was sold at a price of only 114 yuan at an event on an e-commerce platform, setting a new low price since the model was launched. The price of 114 yuan is also considered to be a new low record in the history of smartphone prices, which has aroused widespread attention and discussion in the industry.
Manufacturers accelerate the pace of self-developed chips
In addition to Huawei, other tech giants are also accelerating the pace of independent research and development of chips. Tencent recently announced the progress of three self-developed chips, including the "Tianqiong" chip for AI inference, the "Feilong" video transcoding chip, and the "Pterodactyl" smart network card chip. These chips will be used in Tencent's core businesses such as cloud computing and live video broadcasting.
Google is also significantly increasing its R&D investment in AI server chips. With the rise of large-scale model AI, Google faces stiff competition from companies such as OpenAI. Google has increased its investment in self-developed AI chips such as TPU to ensure a dominant position in the future large-scale AI market.