On October 11, Li Hui, vice president of ZTE, MKT and general manager of the solution government and enterprise department, revealed at the 3rd Digital China Summit that on the main control chip of 5G wireless base stations, switches and other equipment, ZTE’s self-developed 7-nanometer The chip has been commercialized in the market, and 5nm is still in the experimental stage.
According to Li Hui, the products displayed by ZTE this time are all based on independent innovation and are completely localized. “A lot of people didn’t understand ZTE’s independent innovation and development of chips and operating systems before. We used to use them for ourselves. In fact, we invested a lot of people in research and development. For example, there are nearly 4000 people in Chengdu developing independent operating systems.
Li Hui further stated that the process of informatization construction was originally a process of localization. In the past, we bought foreign equipment, and then gradually replaced it with domestic products and completed self-research on core communication chips. However, Li Hui did not explicitly mention their 7nm chip type and model.
In July this year, ZTE responded to rumors about 7nm and 5nm semiconductor chips. ZTE stated that in the field of chip design, ZTE focuses on the design of communication chips and does not have chip manufacturing capabilities. In the design of dedicated communication chips, the company has more than 20 years of experience accumulation, and has the ability to customize the entire process from chip system architecture to back-end physical implementation;
ZTE said, “In terms of chip production and manufacturing, we rely on global partners for division of labor.”
Currently, ZTE has 2651 5G core patents, accounting for 12% of the global 5G core patents, and Huawei currently accounts for 18%.
CICC once pointed out in a research report that ZTE’s net profit margin is about 15%-20% (according to ZTE’s 2014-2017 net profit margin), and the company’s supply of chips accounted for more than 11% of ZTE’s total purchases. (According to ZTE Microelectronics 2017 situation speculation), and 7-nanometer chips are mainly used for 5G base stations.
CICC stated that in the long run, ZTE is expected to gain more market share in the global 5G construction wave. In the first half of 2020, ZTE’s share in domestic 5G bidding is second only to Huawei and has increased.
China Merchants Electronics once pointed out in a research report that the single-chip solution further raises the threshold of base station chips, making it more difficult for domestic manufacturers to enter. The self-sufficiency rate of base station chips is almost zero, which has become the most difficult issue in the previous ZTE embargo. The problem. In the past two years, ZTE has begun to make greater investments in the field of chips, especially in the research and development of base station chips.
EET: Yvonne Geng
