China Fund News reporter Yishan
Lenovo, which triggered hot discussions in the market last year because of the "flashback" of the science and technology innovation board, recently "quietly" established a semiconductor company - Dingdao Zhixin (Shanghai) Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
For chip investment, Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, has publicly stated that the possibility of self-developed chips is not ruled out, nor the possibility of cooperation.
300 million to establish a semiconductor company
Tianyan inspection shows that on January 26, Dingdao Zhixin (Shanghai) Semiconductor Co., Ltd. was formally established, the company is located in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the registered capital is 300 million yuan, the legal representative is Jia Zhaohui, the business scope includes: technical services, technology development, technical consultation, technical exchanges, technology transfer, technology promotion in the field of semiconductor technology; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit sales; software development; software sales; hardware development.
The equity penetration chart shows that Dingdao Zhixin is 100% controlled by Lenovo (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and Hong Kong Lenovo Group Co., Ltd. has become the suspected actual controller of the company through indirect wholly-owned shareholding.
It is worth noting that in addition to serving as the legal person and executive director of the semiconductor company, Jia Zhaohui is also a senior vice president of Lenovo Group, and he has accumulated rich experience in the competitive field of the personal computer market, leading the team to launch the world's first 5G computer Yoga 5G, and the world's first folding screen computer ThinkPad X1.
According to Lenovo officials, since its inception, Lenovo has invested in a number of chip companies with core competitiveness, involving AI, mobile phones, autonomous driving, IoT, 5G and other fields. For example, Lenovo Venture Capital, a subsidiary of Lenovo Group, has invested in Cambrian, Smartsens, Chip, Huaxing Semiconductor, Zhongke Wuqi, Ruisi Zhixin, Suzhou Huiwen, Onry Microelectronics, BYD Semiconductor, Yiguang Technology and other companies.
In addition, Legend Holdings also carries out chip layout through its Legend Capital and Lenovo Star, such as Legend Capital has invested in Spreadtrum Communications, Puri Technology, Fuhan Micro, Apex and other companies, and Lenovo Star has invested in Lingming Photonics, Yiguang Technology, Bosheng Optoelectronics and other companies.
The "flashback" science and technology innovation board has attracted heated discussions and increased investment in research and development
In October last year, Lenovo triggered a hot discussion in the market because of the "flashback" of the science and technology innovation board.
Some insiders believe that for the science and technology innovation board with obvious "hard technology" attributes, Lenovo, which mainly relies on "buying technology", lacks key technologies and cannot be 100% compatible with it. For example, nearly 90% of Lenovo Group's current business revenue comes from the smart device business, and all of them are computer assembly, mobile devices (mobile phones) and other businesses with low technology content, in addition, Lenovo Group's mastery of warm water and liquid cooling and heat recovery technology, trackpad keyboard input technology, etc., are almost all non-critical technologies, while core components such as chips, processors, etc. require external procurement.
According to the prospectus, in the 2018/19 fiscal year, 2019/20 and 2020/21 fiscal year, Lenovo Group's revenue was 342.383 billion yuan, 352.676 billion yuan and 411.620 billion yuan, respectively, and the net profit was 4.247 billion yuan, 5.594 billion yuan and 8.685 billion yuan, respectively, with an average annual compound growth rate of 43%. In the past three fiscal years, R&D investment was 10.203 billion yuan, 11.517 billion yuan and 12.038 billion yuan respectively, which seems to be a relatively high R&D investment, but the proportion of R&D expenditure is only 2.48%, 2.63% and 2.39%. According to the 2020 annual report data, the median ratio of R&D investment to revenue of science and technology innovation board companies is 9%.
Therefore, for Lenovo, if it wants to successfully land on the science and technology innovation board, it may need to increase investment in research and development, and increase the proportion of self-research.
And Lenovo is indeed working in this direction. In August last year, at the Lenovo financial report communication meeting, Lenovo chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing said that Lenovo's R&D investment will double in the next three years, and it is very determined to focus on the new IT field, that is, end management cloud wisdom. For chip investment, Yang Yuanqing said that the possibility of self-developed chips is not ruled out, nor does it rule out the possibility of cooperation.
In terms of self-developed chips, in addition to the recent investment of 300 million yuan to establish a semiconductor company, in September last year, at the Lenovo Innovation and Technology Conference, Lenovo launched a product called LA2 intelligent embedded controller that was independently designed and jointly developed, although named as an intelligent controller, but many people in the industry believe that the product is a "chip". It is reported that this is a dedicated hardware built for PCs, with the purpose of running intelligent algorithms and realizing intelligent functions, using an original heterogeneous multi-core hybrid architecture, based on sensor fusion technology, which can achieve efficient and fast intelligent control.
In addition, after the phenomenon of EDG winning the championship last year, e-sports began to go out of the circle in an all-round way, and Lenovo is also accelerating the layout of the e-sports market. Recently, a Lenovo mobile phone called Halo was exposed, it is understood that as an e-sports mobile phone, the most special place of the phone is that the thickness of the fuselage is only less than 8mm. The phone is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus mobile platform and is expected to be released in the third quarter of this year.
On the other hand, driven by the concept of meta-universe, the VR/AR market is also accelerating, and it is reported that Lenovo jointly released the Augmented Reality Mirage AR headset with Disney as early as 2017, becoming one of the earliest brands to enter the virtual game field.
Recently, IPR Daily, a global intellectual property comprehensive information service provider, released the TOP100 OF the VR/AR Global Invention Patent Ranking since 2020. Among them, Lenovo Group, as a representative of high-tech, was selected into the list and ranked 35th.
In terms of stock price, as of the close of trading on January 27, Lenovo Group was quoted at HK$8.42 per share, with the latest market value of HK$101.4 billion.
Edit: Xiao Mo