NVIDIA Confirms Launch of Special AI Chips for China, Research on Development Prospects of HBM Chip Packaging and Testing Industry
-
According to IT Home on November 30, NVIDIA's RTX 4090 tailored for the Chinese market has been exposed. Additionally, Jensen Huang confirmed that NVIDIA is developing special chips for China, stating that once regulatory requirements are met, they will return to the Chinese market for sales.
Apart from the RTX 4090, media reports indicate that NVIDIA has developed the latest improved AI chips for the Chinese market, including HGX H20, L20 PCIe, and L2 PCIe, which are over 20% faster than the H100 in LLM inference. However, due to issues faced by server manufacturers in integrating the chips, NVIDIA has informed Chinese customers that the launch of the HGX H20 AI chip will be delayed until the first quarter of next year.
Shanxi Securities pointed out that from a training perspective, the computing power of the H20 lags significantly behind the H100, A100, and Huawei's 910B. However, multi-chip clusters under the NV architecture offer clear advantages in interconnect speed and CUDA ecosystem.
For domestic large-scale model training, the maturity of domestic models is relatively low. At the scale of hundreds of billions, stacking chip quantities can meet computing power demands, providing growth potential for the H20 while also implying increased demand for AI servers and optical modules.
Meanwhile, Guosen Securities noted that NVIDIA's new products based on HBM3e memory have become a recent market focus. TrendForce predicts that AI servers will drive HBM demand in 2023-24, with global HBM demand expected to grow by nearly 60% in 2023. The HBM-related materials and equipment supply chain warrants attention.
Regarding companies, Kaiyuan Securities mentioned packaging and testing manufacturers such as JCET, Tongfu Microelectronics, Huatian Technology, Shenzhen Kaifa Technology, and YOFC. The HBM supply chain includes companies like Saiteng, Eswin, Lianrui New Materials, and Huahai Chenke.
In technological advancements, chips have become one of the critical industries in modern society. Chinese chip packaging and testing companies have risen to global leadership, continuously achieving breakthroughs and innovations.
Chip packaging and testing, short for chip assembly and testing, involves cutting, wire bonding, and encapsulating qualified wafers to establish electrical connections between the chip circuit and external components while providing mechanical and physical protection. Testing refers to using test tools provided by integrated circuit design companies to evaluate the functionality and performance of packaged chips. Only after packaging and testing is a chip considered fully functional.
Research on Development Prospects and Current Distribution of Chip Packaging and Testing Industry
In the advancement of technology, chips have become one of the most important industries in modern society, and China's chip packaging and testing enterprises have risen to become global leaders, continuously achieving breakthroughs and innovations. Packaging primarily protects chips from physical and chemical environmental damage, enhances heat dissipation, ensures electrical connections, and maintains proper circuit functionality. As a crucial segment in the semiconductor industry, advanced packaging and testing equipment plays a significant role in processes such as film attachment, grinding, cutting, chip bonding, inspection, molding, and final testing.
Currently, chip packaging and testing enterprises face challenges on both technological and market competition fronts. From a technological perspective, the industry must continuously develop and innovate new packaging and testing equipment and techniques to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Additionally, packaging and testing for specific chip models require more intelligent and complex technological approaches, which must then be industrialized and promoted.
From a market perspective, packaging and testing enterprises need to continuously explore new markets, promote new technologies and achievements, make forward-looking market predictions, and strategically adjust to market trends to maintain a competitive edge.
Domestic packaging and testing enterprises are mainly distributed across four regions, including the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. The Yangtze River Delta accounts for 55% of the market share, while the central and western regions show significant growth, with packaging and testing enterprises accounting for 14%.
Storage is the cornerstone of the digital economy. As a typical cyclical growth industry, storage is currently at the dawn of a new growth phase. After seven quarters of decline since the end of 2021, storage product prices have stabilized. Combined with production cuts by storage manufacturers and ongoing inventory adjustments downstream, the industry has reached the bottom of the cycle, with demand expected to gradually recover in the second half of the year.
The release of new products by multiple terminal manufacturers has revitalized the consumer electronics market, leading to robust orders for upstream suppliers and a potential demand recovery. CITIC Securities believes that as demand gradually returns, leading companies in the industry may see performance improvements, presenting investment opportunities amid the cyclical recovery and localization trends in China's storage industry. Huatai Securities notes that storage is the foundation of the digital economy and, as a cyclical growth industry, is entering a new phase of growth.
In the global chip industry, packaging and testing is one of the three key segments and the one most familiar to the general public. The packaging and testing process involves functional testing of various chip models after manufacturing, selecting stable and high-quality chips to ensure they meet market demands and standards. Packaging and testing are essential steps for mass production and market application in the chip industry, playing a critical role in its healthy development.
From the current global trends in chip packaging and testing, it is evident that Chinese enterprises are gaining an increasing market share. Their international presence continues to grow, with more global chip suppliers opting to collaborate with Chinese companies, accelerating the expansion of their packaging and testing businesses worldwide.
<u>Market Size of the Chip Packaging and Testing Industry</u>
China's advanced packaging accounts for about 15.7% of the global market, and this proportion is expected to reach approximately 16.6% by 2022. In the same year, the market size of advanced packaging reached about 40.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 12.98%. This indicates that advanced packaging will be the main development direction of China's chip packaging and testing industry in the future.
According to data, the market size of China's display driver chip packaging and testing industry was 13.57 billion yuan in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 36.4%. It is expected that the industry size will grow to 23.61 billion yuan by 2023.
In the fierce market competition, whether enterprises and investors can make timely and effective market decisions is the key to success. The chip packaging and testing industry report compiled by China Research Network provides a detailed analysis of the development status, competitive landscape, and market supply and demand situation of China's chip packaging and testing industry. It also analyzes the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry from the perspectives of policy environment, economic environment, social environment, and technological environment.
At the same time, it reveals potential market demands and opportunities, providing accurate market intelligence and scientific decision-making basis for strategic investors to choose the right investment timing and for corporate leadership to make strategic plans. It also holds significant reference value for government departments.