The upstream of the chip industry chain is mainly the chip design link. Chip design is one of the most important links in the chip industry chain. On the list of the top 10 global chip design companies, there are six U.S. companies on the list, of which Broadcom, Qualcomm and Nvidia have bagged the top three. Therefore, according to the geographical division, the global chip design is mainly dominated by the United States, China's mainland region has Huawei Haisi, Ziguang and other companies in the field of chip design to stand out, and is still in the catching up stage. According to SEMI data, China's chip design industry has maintained a relatively fast growth trend, in 2020, China's chip design industry sales for the first time exceeded 50 billion U.S. dollars, the number of design companies in the industry is 2218, an increase of 24.6%. As the chip design link is a knowledge-intensive industry, it is asset-light, so the gross profit rate is higher. It is understood that the general gross profit of European and American companies in this segment is 50% to 80%, and domestic companies are between 35% and 60%. The middle end of the chip industry chain: the middle end of the chip industry chain is mainly in the field of materials, equipment and manufacturing, and this link has huge upfront investment costs and a very high threshold. The link is medium profit, generally healthy gross profit between 30%~50%, and the risk is controllable. In the field of chip materials as well as chemicals, affected by technical barriers, this track is mainly dominated by American and Japanese companies. In the field of chip equipment, with high technical barriers, research and development difficulties, long cycle, the main key equipment is controlled by a few international giants. According to the U.S. semiconductor industry research company VLSIResearch released "2020 before the 10 largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers revenue data" shows that in the top ten, the United States and Japan each accounted for 4 places, of which 4 U.S. companies a **** to take the global market share of semiconductor equipment over 38.9%. Visible, in the field of equipment, the United States has the absolute right to speak. However, with the Chinese multinational groups in China to build factories, cooperation and other matters, the domestic equipment manufacturers will usher in a good opportunity for development. Chip manufacturing field of high technology content, complex and rigorous process, capital investment is huge, belongs to the heavy assets. At present, in the field of chip manufacturing, mainly to China Taiwan's TSMC, South Korea's Samsung and other leading position. Although the manufacturing process of enterprises in China's mainland region is temporarily in a backward position, 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 on a year-on-year upward trend.In 2020, China's integrated circuit manufacturing industry realized a cumulative value of output of 2,614.70 billion blocks, a year-on-year growth of 29.55% compared with that of 2019. The downstream of the chip industry chain is mainly the chip sealing and testing link, i.e., packaging plus testing, which is the last process for the completion of chip production. Due to the early start and rapid development of the chip sealing and testing field in China, China's sealing and testing market currently accounts for 70% of the global market, the scale of the domestic industry has obvious advantages, and China's sealing and testing enterprises have entered the world's first echelon. In 2020, the world's top ten sealing and testing enterprises, China's long power technology, through the rich microelectronics and huatian science and technology are on the list. Chip sealing and testing link, the threshold is relatively low, the domestic market involution is great, and profit margins are the lowest, generally gross profit in 20% ~ 40%, made into a brand also has added value, the lowest risk, cash flow turnover.
With sensors and processing technology maturing, the medical chip market is heating up, seeing frantic activity from systems companies and startups that want a place in the vast and largely undeveloped field. As with any industry, there are multiple business models in the IC chip industry for medical use that can spread the design burden across many companies or just one large company. This has been limited in the past by the relatively low number of chips in medical devices, which has constrained design activity. But as more design services firms join the industry, they are able to realize economies of scale across multiple suppliers. This trend is further fueled by an aging population, the need for more home healthcare, greater accuracy and wider availability, and affordable electronic medical devices such as wearable displays.