Smartphone growth slows down, can chip giants shake up the automotive chip market?

Looking at the mobile phone chip market in 2017, the oldest brother, Qualcomm, was caught in the pursuit of Broadcom’s acquisitions, but the “bargaining” with Dutch chip maker NXP’s NXP is continuing. The latter is a leader in automotive processor companies. And Qualcomm’s old rival MediaTek in the field of mobile phones has continued its efforts in the field of automotive electronics and has targeted the major European car makers and the domestic Internet’s “new vehicle builders”. According to the official, MediaTek’s current investment in the automotive electronics industry accounts for approximately 30% of the total investment, second only to the mobile phone chip.

In addition, although Huawei Hass did not publicly publicize any plans concerning smart cars, Huawei has been on the car chip since the past official announced that it "will invest hundreds of millions of yuan each year in research and development in the area of ​​car networking." Technical reserves will not be lost.

"There are many opportunities for automotive electronics chips. For now, whether it is electric vehicles or self-driving cars, semiconductor components with good quality and high safety levels are needed to meet the development needs of electric vehicles and self-driving cars." Yao Jiayang, an analyst at Bang Tuo Industrial Research Institute, told the First Financial reporter that using self-driving cars as an example, vehicle radar, vehicle networking, vehicle-mounted communication, vehicle sensors, etc. will all be important opportunities for semiconductor manufacturers. .

However, for these mobile chip players, the challenge of new entry does not only come from "cross-border". “There are already a lot of semiconductor suppliers related to smart cars, including companies like NXP, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and Renesas, and they have a solid customer relationship in the market. When the mobile phone chip enters early, In principle, there will not be much advantage," Yao Jiayang told reporters.

But in front of such a big industry cake, I believe no one does not go all out.

Looking for a partner

The automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation. When the car becomes a computer with four wheels, the value sequence of the automobile industry chain will also change.

From the perspective of industry structure, the major players in the past to control the automotive semiconductor market were NXP, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and Renesas. Since the market was relatively stable, there was little opportunity for outsiders to enter. However, with the advancing of ADAS and autopilot technology, the demand for smart cars for computing and data processing capabilities has been soaring. This has given technology companies that are already interested in this market another reason to attack.

“As the growth momentum of the smart phone market begins to slow, it is already inevitable that mobile phone chip makers will begin to adopt a multi-corner operation. Taking Qualcomm as an example, as early as three to four years ago, resources have been launched into the Internet of Things. , security monitoring and drones and other fields, car networking is a huge market.” Yao Jiayang told reporters that from the automotive electronics, mobile phone chip companies have LTE and WiFi technology at this stage, can be seen as an advantage one.

In fact, as early as the 2016 US Consumer Electronics Show, Qualcomm launched the auto version of the Snapdragon 820A processor. Although it is also called 820, it is a system chip designed specifically for automobiles. Its performance is comparable to the mobile version of the Snapdragon 820, and it also has an LTE connectivity module. In September 2017, Qualcomm officially released the 9150C-V2X chip to allow cars to “talk” to each other. By the end of the year, the driverless cars equipped with Qualcomm chips have been allowed to test in the United States.

Stacking technology does not guarantee success in the market. Xu Jingquan, deputy general manager of MediaTek, told reporters that unlike the mobile phone business, the car is still a strong B2B property industry. A mobile phone is messed up and can come back after six months, but the car may be two to three years old. . The implication is that it is not an easy task to open up the traditional car market.

In addition, the front-loading market for automobiles is a market with high thresholds and strong trust, and it needs to involve the planners in the market for early product development of car companies. For mobile phone chip manufacturers, this is not easy. At this time, finding more reliable partners has become an inevitable choice for companies.

Earlier, the German car companies Audi, BMW and Daimler announced that they had formed alliances with Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm to form a 5G automotive alliance to speed up the development of interconnected devices needed for self-driving cars. In China, there are "China Automotive Electronics Industry Ecology Alliance", Qualcomm, Huawei, etc.

"MediaTek is also looking for more partners, including the focus of cooperation with key European car companies and head plan companies, and also in the Mainland is also trying to cooperate with BAT and other Internet companies." Xu Jingquan told reporters that the current MediaTek Already in touch with the companies in BAT. As for the development of smart cars, he revealed that it is expected that the depot-level products will be delivered in 2018.

Yao Jiayang believes that in addition to the cooperation of car companies, whether mobile phone chip manufacturers can obtain AEC-Q100 certification is also a very important condition in vehicle safety. If this certification is obtained, it will be easier for first-line component suppliers to gain favor.

Can you shake the car chip market?

The automotive semiconductor market has been growing at an alarming rate in recent years.

According to a global semiconductor industry study published by ICInsights, a market research organization, the output value of automotive semiconductors grew rapidly at a rate of 10.8% per annum from 2013 to 2018. However, for such a market, Qualcomm, MediaTek, etc. hope to replicate their brilliance in the consumer electronics field will not be easy.

Traditional chip companies are fighting back.

For example, Renesas, STMicroelectronics and other traditional automotive chip companies are also launching their own solutions, and Bosch set up a driver service driving department in the early years. Besides providing a full set of ADAS solutions for many companies, Collaborate with map providers.

According to Bosch, high-precision maps equipped with Bosch road feature location features can be successfully integrated into self-driving cars and achieve precise positioning. The test and verification work on highway road conditions will begin in early 2018 with photo dealers.

There are also Nvidia and Intel who cut in from the data side. Nvidia, thanks to its GPU technology, launched a number of on-board computing platforms for AI technology such as deep learning in 2017, and took Audi and other companies to prepare it for mass production by 2020. Intel is also increasing its investment in autonomous driving and has set up a car alliance with BMW and ADOSS oligarch Mobileye. Subsequently, Mobileye is also in the bag.

At the same time, there are also dozens of startup companies in the world wishing to share a piece of cake, including Horizon, Multitech, ChiZi, Uzbekistan, Tucson, KingChi, nuTonomy, Plus.ai, drive.ai, AutoX. And other companies.

More importantly, mobile phone chip makers also have their own difficulties.

At present, Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP Semiconductors is subject to the approval of the relevant anti-monopoly authority in addition to the price not yet agreed. Since both parties have failed to provide relevant documents, the EU anti-monopoly agency has suspended the acquisition in June 2017. After the anti-monopoly review provided relevant materials, the EU's anti-monopoly review will not restart. However, there is still some uncertainty in the EU's anti-monopoly review. The European Union had previously worried that Qualcomm's acquisition of NXP Semiconductors will change NXP’s current patent licensing methods, increase patent licensing fees, and weaken competitors’ innovation capabilities.

For MediaTek, the automotive business needs more sustained investment as an emerging business. In the crucial moment when the mobile phone chip market enters a transitional period, whether or not to adopt more radical market actions requires the wisdom of managers.

Yao Jiayang told reporters that mobile phone chip companies are turning to the automotive chip industry to pursue the growth of financial indicators such as corporate revenue, but also need to consider the hidden risks in the market.