TrendForce: China’s IC Design Industry Revenue Grows by 22% in 2017, HiSilicon, Unigroup Spreadtrum RDA and Sanechips Rank Top 3

According to the latest report of TrendForce, China’s IC design industry revenue will reach RMB 200.6 billion in 2017, a yearly growth of 22%. The growth rate is expected to remain at around 20%, totaling RMB 240 billion in 2018, pointed out by Cici Zhang, analyst of TrendForce.

China’s IC design industry has made constant progress to develop more high-end products, for example, HiSilicon has already adopted 10nm technology in its high-end models of mobile phones. In addition, HiSilicon and Sanechips (ZTE Microelectronics) provide NB-IoT chip solutions. Cambricon Technologies and Horizon Robotics race to develop new AI-specific chips. Unigroup Spreadtrum RDA, Datang, and HiSilicon have released products for 5G network. As for the overall revenue performance of the industry, many companies record a double-digit revenue growth.

According to TrendForce’s forecast of 2017 IC design industry revenue ranking, Datang Semiconductor will drop out of top 10, while WillSemi and GigaDevice enter the list with their remarkable performance in revenue.

To be more specific, HiSilicon records a yearly revenue growth of more than 25% due to the increasing penetration rate of Kirin chips in phones. The surging mobile phone shipments of Huawei, the parent company of HiSilicon, also contribute to the revenue boost. Unigroup Spreadtrum RDA experiences a drop in revenue because of fierce competition in low- and mid-range market. Sanechips, whose core business is designing IC components for telecommunication applications, turns out to have a revenue growth over 30% after expanding its ranges of products.

Huada Semiconductor benefits from rich resources of the corporation and develops wide ranges of products, including smart card, secure chip, analog circuit, and new display etc. Its revenue exceeds RMB 5 billion in 2017 for the first time. In the market of fingerprint sensors, Goodix's market performance is catching up to the market leader FPC. It records a revenue growth of 25% as a result of its competitive products and the increasing penetration rate of fingerprint recognition technology in smartphones. GigaDevice, which enters the top 10 list for the first time, has excellent market performance on NOR Flash and 32bit MCUs. Its 2017 revenue is expected to increase by more than 40%, reaching RMB 2 billion.

Driven by advancement of process technology, China’s semiconductor industry will keep its rapid growth in 2018. The market share of low- and mid-range products in China’s domestic market is expected to increase. On the other hand, the central government and local authorities of China will continue supportive policies in IC design to increase its self-sufficiency in semiconductor production. The second phase of National IC Fund is being raised, and the portion of funding in IC design will also be increased and expanded to companies in innovative end-application markets. IoT, AI, automotive electronics and other innovative applications also bring growing demand for IC products.

For the further details of the press release and the following figure and table – Figure. Overview of China’s IC Design Industry, 2016 and Table. 2017 Ranking of Chinese IC Design Companies by Revenue – please visit:

http://press.trendforce.com/press/20171206-3032.html

To learn more about the Breakdown Analysis of China’s Semiconductor Industry report, please visit:

http://www.dramexchange.com/Intelligence/china_semiconductor_industry_trend_report_and_analysis

About TrendForce (www.trendforce.com)

TrendForce is a global provider of market intelligence on the technology industries. Having served businesses for over a decade, the company has built up a strong membership base of 500,000 subscribers residing the technology and financial services sectors. TrendForce has established a reputation as an organization that offers insightful and accurate analysis of the technology industry through five major research divisions: DRAMeXchange, WitsView, LEDinside, EnergyTrend and Topology Research Institute. Founded in Taipei, Taiwan in 2000, TrendForce has extended its presence in China since 2004 with offices in Shenzhen and Beijing.

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