As an important part of semiconductor industry chain, chip industry chain is a bridgehead for the development of electronic information technology industry.
Due to the variety of chips, different types of chips have certain differences due to different functions, manufacturing processes and processes. According to the production and manufacturing process of chips, the industry chain can be divided into upper, middle and lower reaches, which can be roughly divided into chip design, chip manufacturing and chip packaging stages.
In the chip industry chain, each link has a division of labor around the world. Downstream, chips will be used in communications, computers, automotive electronics, consumer electronics and many other fields. Then, how much does the profit of upstream, middle and downstream of the industrial chain account for the profit of the whole industrial chain? Is the profit rate of different links the same? What is the difference?
Upstream of chip industry chain -- chip design
The upstream of the chip industry chain is mainly chip design. Chip design is one of the most important links in the chip industry chain.
Six OF the top 10 global chip design companies are From the US; Among them, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Nvidia took the top three. Therefore, according to the geographical division, the global chip design is mainly dominated by the United States, huawei Haisi, Unigroup and other companies in the mainland of China in the chip design field, is still in the catch-up stage.
According to SEMI data, China's chip design industry has maintained a rapid growth trend. In 2020, China's chip design industry sales exceeded $50 billion for the first time, with the number of design companies in the industry reaching 2,218, up 24.6% year-on-year.
As chip design is a knowledge-intensive industry, it is asset-light, so the gross margin is higher. It is understood that the general gross profit of European and American companies is 50% ~ 80%, and that of domestic companies is 35% ~ 60%.
Chip industry chain middle end
The middle end of the chip industry chain is mainly in the fields of materials, equipment and manufacturing, where the initial investment cost is huge and the threshold is extremely high. The profit of this link is medium, the general healthy gross profit is between 30% and 50%, and the risk is controllable.
Chip material
In chip materials and chemicals, the circuit is dominated by American and Japanese companies due to technical barriers.
Chip equipment
In the field of chip equipment, there are high technical barriers, difficult research and development, long cycle, the main key equipment is controlled by a few international giants.
According to the revenue data of the Top 10 semiconductor equipment manufacturers in 2020 released by VLSI Research, the U.S. and Japan each accounted for four of the top 10, with four U.S. companies taking over 38.9 percent of the global semiconductor equipment market. Clearly, in the field of equipment, the United States has an absolute say. However, with the establishment of Chinese multinational groups in China, cooperation and other matters, domestic equipment manufacturers will usher in a good opportunity for development.
Chip manufacturing
Chip manufacturing field is a heavy asset with high technical content, complex and rigorous technological process and huge capital investment.
Currently, TSMC of Taiwan and Samsung of South Korea are leading the chip manufacturing industry. Although the manufacturing technology of enterprises in mainland China is temporarily lagging behind, according to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2011 to 2020, the total output of China's integrated circuit manufacturing industry has been rising year by year. China's IC manufacturing industry achieved a cumulative output of 261.47 billion pieces in 2020, up 29.55% from 2019.
Chip industry chain downstream - chip sealing test
The downstream of the chip industry chain is mainly chip sealing and testing, that is, packaging and testing, which is the last process of chip manufacturing.
Due to the early start and rapid development of the chip testing field in China, China's testing market accounted for 70% of the world; Domestic industry scale advantage is obvious, our country sealed test enterprises have entered the world's first echelon. In the world's top ten sealed test enterprises in 2020, China's Changdian Technology, Tongfu Micro power and Huatian Technology have been listed.
The chip sealing test link, the threshold is relatively low, the domestic market volume is fierce, and the profit margin is the lowest, the general gross profit is 20% ~ 40%, the brand also has added value, the lowest risk, cash flow turnover.
In addition to the above, the chip industry chain also includes EDA,IP, agents and so on.
EDA is tool software, which has a high gross margin of 99.99%. However, this field requires a huge amount of capital and manpower in the early stage, and a lot of market research is needed. At present, the market is basically monopolized by Synopsys, Cadence and Mentor, and the net profit margin is similar to that of chip design.
The typical representative of IP is ARM. The biggest difference from ordinary semiconductor companies is that ARM does not manufacture chips and does not sell chips to end users. Instead, its partners produce chips with their own characteristics by transferring design schemes. ARM took advantage of this win-win partnership to quickly become the creator of the global RISC microprocessor standard. This model also brings great benefits to users, because users can use chips with the same ARM kernel from multiple companies only by mastering one ARM kernel structure and its development methods. At present, THE ARM architecture has been widely used by the world's major mobile phone and computer manufacturers, such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei and other companies. According to Strategy Analytics, the arm-based notebook processor market will grow a staggering nine-fold in revenue in 2020 and is expected to more than triple to $949 million by 2021.
As an important role in the sales link of the chip industry chain, agents can obtain orders for the original factory through the agency authority issued by the original factory, complete the sales target, and increase the vitality of the market products. Generally speaking, the profit margin of agents is generally 5%-10% on the surface, and only the big agents have the qualification to negotiate with the original manufacturer, and can get better prices and conditions from the original chip manufacturer.
Current situation of China's chip industry chain layout
According to statistics from China Semiconductor Industry Association, the self-sufficiency rate of China's products is very low compared to the huge size of the semiconductor market. In 2020, the market size of China's IC industry was 884.8 billion yuan, up 17.00% compared with 2019.
In recent years, although the market size of China's IC industry has been increasing year by year, China's IC industry still lacks in key technical fields, and its self-sufficiency rate is low. Therefore, China's IC industry relies heavily on imports, leading to a large trade deficit.
At present, China's IC self-sufficiency rate is still low compared with developed countries, so in order to promote the development of domestic IC, China attaches great importance to the training of talents in the IC industry. Promulgated by the State Council in the eight major policy promotes the development of integrated circuit and the software industry high-quality "mentioned in further strengthening the construction of integrated circuit and the software professional, accelerate the integration level of subject setting work, in close connection with the development of industry needs to adjust the curriculum, teaching plan and teaching methods, to cultivate, high level of practical talents.
With the further development of chip industry, the pattern of chip design, chip manufacturing and sealing and testing are changing, and the structure of China's chip industry chain is constantly optimizing. It is estimated that by 2025, the scale of China's IC market is expected to exceed 2,380 billion yuan.