Most Chinese semiconductor startups are operating on a net loss, and analysts expect this may last into the next two years. Further, the United States has placed export controls on close to a dozen AI and machine learning technologies. Chinese semiconductor companies are however catching up, propelled by multiple government policies, a firm push in R&D, and massive capital injection.
There are two primary application fields Chinese chip companies cater to: Security and Smartphones. China will have over 600 million security cameras by 2020. The country’s compound annual growth rate for Security from 2018-2022 is estimated at 22.6 percent, with wide-range applications in public security, urban transportation, eco-architecture and industrial parks.
Chips are the most expensive component in video surveillance. A typical device set requires four types of chips: two types of SoC accelerators, one for deep learning, and an ISP chip. Most current AI chip solutions use GPUs, but more FPGA/ASIC solutions emerging for example from Cambricon and DeePhi, while Huawei Hisilicon has become a big player in specialized SoC.
Chinese startups lack the experience of large semiconductor companies with CPU, GPU and FPGA designs, therefore ASICs are seen as a catch-up opportunity. Current Chinese companies in this field include:
Bitmain (Series B+ $440 million, 2018-08)
Cambricon (Series B Hundreds of million approx., 2018-06)
Horizon Robotics (Series B $600 million, 2019-02)
Kneron (Series A+ $18 million, 2018-05)
NextVPU (Series A $28.82 million, 2018-10)
Easytech (Series A Undisclosed, 2019-03)
DeePhi Tech (Acquired by Xinlinx, 2018)
Huawei HiSilicon (Established in 1991)
Baidu
Alibaba
Hikvision
https://syncedreview.com/2019/04/20/a-look-at-chinas-growing-semiconductor-industry/
The consolidation of silicon manufacturing into two main foundries raises the threat level, pointed out Diane Bryant, former Intel and Google Cloud executive.
“You really just have TSMC and Samsung left,” she said. “And TSMC is in Taiwan, so you have to be thinking about China and the threat to Taiwan, and what will happen to TSMC.”
China will take over Taiwan “the same time North Korea takes over South Korea,” quipped Hennessy, giving it control over most of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
“What do you do tomorrow if TSMC and Samsung are off limits?” he asked his fellow panel members.
“You can’t go to Global Foundries,” which indeed has some U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capability, said Bryant, “unless you really want Moore’s Law to be dead.” (Global Foundries recently stopped developing the most advanced semiconductor processes.)
Rodrigo Liang, CEO of SambaNova Systems, argued that fixing this problem can only be done at the level of the U.S. government.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/semiconductors/devices/semiconductor-industry-veterans-keep-wary-eyes-on-china