Niuxin Semiconductor has completed a round B financing of more than 100 million yuan and is committed to the localization of high-end core IP

“This round of financing will be used for the R&D and promotion of high-end interface IP products.”
Author: Kang Youti Editor: tuya Product: financial graffiti
According to the disclosure on the official website of Niuxin Semiconductor, Niuxin Semiconductor (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Niuxin Semiconductor”) completed a round B equity financing of more than 100 million yuan, led by Haisong Capital, and other investors include: Precision Capital, Cornerstone Capital, Yingmeng Capital, Longding Investment, etc. This round of financing will be used for the R&D and promotion of high-end interface IP products, mainly involving PCIE5.0, 56/112GSerDes, DDR5/LPDDR5, GDDR6, etc.
In order to meet the needs of the localization of high-end core IP, Niuxin Semiconductor has long focused on the independent intellectual property research and development of interface IP-related technologies, including SerDes, DDR and other high-end interface IP. SerDes is the abbreviation of Serializer/Deserializer in English. It is a key interconnection technology in wired and wireless communication applications; DDR (Double Data Rate) and LPDDR (Low Power Double Data Rate) technologies are key parallel interconnection technologies in server, enterprise storage, high-performance computing, consumer electronics and other applications.
IP core, namely intellectual property core or intellectual property module, is an integrated circuit design macro module that has been repeatedly verified and can be reused. It is mainly used in application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or programmable logic devices (FPGAs). Semiconductor IP licensing belongs to the upstream of semiconductor design. The emergence of IP licensing originates from the vertical division of labor mode of “Fables+Foundry” in the semiconductor industry. The design company does not need to design every detail of the chip, but realizes a specific function by purchasing mature and reliable IP solutions.
According to Moore’s Law, the difficulty of high-performance chip design will continue to increase, and the technical barrier of IP core is high. It requires a lot of R&D resources and costs to complete the IP design of all chips independently. In contrast, the use of proven IP cores can effectively reduce design risks and costs. Generally, the period for designers to complete IC (integrated circuit) design is only 3 months, but the complexity of IC increases by 55% every year, and the design capacity increases by only 21% every year. Therefore, the reuse of intellectual property (IP) can shorten the time to market.
According to IPnest’s data, the global semiconductor IP market size in 2020 was 4.6 billion US dollars, up 16.7% year on year, the fastest growth rate since 2000. In the future, as the demand for high-growth applications related to cloud servers and data centers, automobiles, smart home devices and healthcare increases, the size of the IP market is expected to grow further. According to the prediction of IBS, the global IP market size will reach 7.3 billion US dollars in 2025, corresponding to 5.5% CAGR from 2020 to 2025.
According to IPnest’s data, the IP market pattern is highly concentrated, and the market share is mainly in the hands of the top three manufacturers. In 2020, CR3 was 66.2%, and CR10 was 79.3%, of which only one core source stock in China was listed in the top ten. As a key factor in the upstream of the integrated circuit industry chain, IP is playing an increasingly important role, but it is also one of the weakest links in China’s integrated circuit industry chain. The demand for the localization of high-end core IP needs to be met urgently.
Chen Liguang, founding partner and CEO of Haisong Capital, said that the arrival of the digital and information era has promoted the rapid development of data center/cloud server, artificial intelligence, 5G infrastructure, data network, automatic driving and other related applications, and has generated huge demand for SerDes and related technologies. It is expected that SerDes and related technologies will usher in rapid growth in China in the future. High-end interface IP circuit, which is laid out by Niuxin Semiconductor, is the key development direction of the industry in the future. IP is a capital-intensive and talent-intensive industry with strong technology-driven attributes. It has very high requirements for management team ability and enterprise IP technology reserves. Haisong Capital is optimistic about the product layout and development prospects of Niuxin Semiconductor in the interface IP circuit in the future.