Analysis of the Market Landscape and Market Share in the Chinese Artificial Intelligence Chip Industry

Artificial intelligence chip is the core of information industry and the key force to lead a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. With the continuous maturity of artificial intelligence and chip technology, the industrial upgrading speed of downstream industries such as cloud computing, consumer electronics, driverless driving and smart phones is accelerating, and China's AI chip industry is in a period of rapid development.

Figure 1: China's AI chip industry is in a period of rapid development

Competitive Echelon of China's Artificial Intelligence Chip Industry

Artificial intelligence chip is the core of information industry and the key force to lead a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. The artificial intelligence chip industry can be divided into three competitive echelons according to the registered capital of enterprises. Among them, enterprises with a registered capital of more than 1 billion yuan include HUAWEI and HORIZON; Enterprises with a registered capital of 100-1 billion yuan are: CAMBRICON, AI SPEECH, and ILUVATAR; The other enterprises are less than 100 million yuan.

Figure 2: Competition Echelon of China's Artificial Intelligence Chip Industry (* Data Source: QICHAMAO Prospective Industry Research Institute) 

At present, with the continuous maturity of artificial intelligence and chip technology, the industrial upgrading speed of downstream industries such as cloud computing, consumer electronics, driverless driving and smart phones is accelerating. China's AI chip industry is in a period of rapid development, and the AI chip market covers many fields such as home, security, transportation, medical care and industry.

Market concentration ratio of China's artificial intelligence chip industry

China's artificial intelligence chip industry started late but developed rapidly; At present, the leading listed companies include CAMBRIAN, NAVINFO, INGENIC Semiconductor and VERISILICON Microelectronics, etc. According to the data disclosed by these four listed companies, the market share of these four listed companies in China's artificial intelligence chip industry will account for 6.61% in 2021. Compared to 2018, there has been a significant decrease in market share. The main reason for this is the rapid development of the industry from 2018 to 2021. Emerging artificial intelligence chip companies have seized market opportunities by leveraging their technological advantages and have gained a certain market share.

Figure 3: Proportion of related business revenues of representative listed companies in China's artificial intelligence chip industry from 2018 to 2021 (unit: %) (* Data source: AR China)

Note: The representative listed companies are CAMBRIAN, NAVINFO, INGENIC Semiconductor and VERISILICON Microelectronics

Chinese AI chip industry enterprise layout and competitiveness evaluation

Chinese AI chip industry started late, but developed rapidly, and leading enterprises mainly concentrated in developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Among them, Beijing is the most active region in China for AI chip innovation. More than half of the companies involved in this business are located in Beijing. Some notable representative companies include Horizon Robotics Ltd., CAMBRIAN, NAVINFO, and INGENIC Semiconductor. Additionally, in Shenzhen, HUAWEI HISILICON is a major player in the AI chip industry. In Shanghai, there is VERISILICON as a prominent company. In Jiangsu, there is AISPEECH as a notable player in the industry.

Among them, HUAWEI HISILICON has the longest development history and mature chip design technology. Its product portfolio covers both low-end and high-end markets. The Kirin series of AI chips has a significant market share. The competitiveness of its AI chip business is rated as five stars. As for HORIZON, is a rising star in the industry. With strong technological advantages, it has established a fast commercialization path in the field of intelligent driving, gaining a significant advantage in this domain. The competitiveness of its AI chip business is rated as four stars. In addition, Horizon, NAVINFO, INGENIC Semiconductor, VERISILICON and other companies have made in-depth investment in layout and research and development in the field of artificial intelligence chips, and achieved remarkable accomplishments.

Summary of Competitive Status of China's Artificial Intelligence Chip Industry

Figure 4: Competition status of China's artificial intelligence chip industry (* Data source: AR China)

From the perspective of the Five Forces competitive model, the current Chinese AI chip industry can be classified as an information industry with a high level of technological expertise and a relatively low threat of substitutes. While there are not many existing competitors, the market concentration is high. Upstream suppliers are generally semiconductor materials and semiconductor equipment. Due to the high technical barriers of lithography machines, the industry urgently needs to break through technical bottlenecks and have high bargaining power; The downstream consumer markets are mainly cloud computing, consumer electronics and driverless, with moderate bargaining power. At the same time, due to the strict access qualifications of the industry and the high threshold of capital and technology, the threat of potential entrants is small.

Analysis of the Market Landscape and Market Share in the Chinese Artificial Intelligence Chip Industry-China exportsemi.com