Qualcomm ** Spreadtrum MediaTek

The news that wireless communication chip design manufacturers Qualcomm and UMC have cooperated in research and development of 18nm chips has caused widespread industry debate. It is reported that Qualcomm is trying to fight MediaTek and Spreadtrum in the low-end chip field, and will therefore cooperate with UMC to develop such chips. In the past, Qualcomm had been making efforts to develop high-end mobile chips. However, as MediaTek and local chip manufacturers gradually emerged, Qualcomm began to design China's low-end chip business in order to strengthen its competitive strength.

Qualcomm's development will have a major impact on China's chip industry. The essence of the chip is a kind of silicon chip, which is both the collective name of the semiconductor components and the carrier of the integrated circuit and has a small volume. Chips are often used in the field of electronic information industry, such as mobile phone chips, computer chips, etc., and as the core of electronic devices, the role of the chip is significant, and the economic benefits generated are also very impressive. As a result, Qualcomm will have low-end chips, and the market for mobile chips such as MediaTek and Spreadtrum will be directly threatened.

In addition, through cooperation with Qualcomm, UMC will also affect the development of chip foundries in mainland China. In the global semiconductor foundry revenue rankings in 2014, TSMC, UMC, Global, Samsung, and SMIC ranked in the top five. One of them was lost to Apple's A9 chip orders this year due to chip yields. The first camp, TSMC, will face Samsung's positive rivals, and UMC is a potential rival of SMIC.

SMIC is the largest chip foundry in mainland China, but SMIC lags behind the four companies in the production process. Before this, there were transmissions and high-pass cooperation with 28nm chip manufacturing, which has the opportunity to upgrade the SMIC's technical level, but the follow-up has not been followed. Today, UMC will collaborate with Qualcomm on its 18nm chip. SMIC can only watch the growth of its competitors.

With the power of Qualcomm, the semiconductor market will change. This also reflects China's semiconductor market has entered the white-hot competition in which the growth rate of smart phones slows, weakening demand for mobile chips also exacerbated the plight of semiconductors. In recent years, China has been vigorously supporting the development of local chip manufacturers. With the favorable policies and funds, local chip manufacturers are expected to expand large-scale, improve technology, and survive the crisis.

The 2015-2020 Market Demand Forecasting and Investment Strategic Planning Analysis Report of the China Integrated Circuit Industry provided by the Industry Research Institute for Prospective Industry shows that the sales of China's integrated circuit industry in 2014 was 301.54 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%, and the industrial scale has continued to develop. However, the status quo that the chip industry is large but not strong still exists. In the future, local chip makers need to improve their core technologies so that they can catch up with foreign companies.