Technology Weekly

Luo Yonghao has been battling with investors, warning entrepreneurs to sign buyback terms

On December 7, Hammer Technology Zihui Venture Capital investor Zheng Gang published an article accusing Luo Yonghao of 'not being grateful' for not holding a shareholders' meeting and directly issuing an offset agreement without disclosure. Subsequently, Luo Yonghao issued a response, saying that there was a meeting, and after obtaining the consent of investors and partners, the old shareholders who had invested in Smartisan Technology were provided with 5% of the shares before the ‘investment and 3.72% of the shares after the investment The conditions and agreements are also voluntarily chosen by the old shareholders to sign or not to sign.

Comments:At present, the two sides have not continued to 'talk' in public, but this incident warns entrepreneurs and investors to be cautious when signing share repurchase terms. Entrepreneurs should take into account the risks and characteristics of the industry where the project is located, according to the current situation of the founding team, limit the terms of the share repurchase, try to increase the threshold for exercising the right to share repurchase, conduct more rounds of trading and games on the scope, method and boundary of equity repurchase liability limitations and strive for investors to compromise to a certain extent.

All products will no longer use Chinese chips by 2024, Dell did not respond directly

'Nikkei Asia News' (Nikkei Asia) reported on Jan. 5 that, according to people familiar with the matter, Dell (NYSE: DELL), the world's third-largest computer maker, has set a goal to realize that all products do not will use Chinese computers more by 2024. At the same time, Dell also requires suppliers and product assemblers of other components such as electronic modules and printed circuit boards (PCBs) to start preparing to increase production capacity in countries other than China ( such as Vietnam), with the goal of moving 50% of production capacity out of China by 2025.

Comments:In response to this news, Dell responded, 'We continue to explore global supply chain diversification that is meaningful to our customers and our business.' Dell also emphasized that 'China is an important market and we have team members and customers serving it.' Canalys data shows that Dell and HP will collectively ship more than 133 million laptops and desktops in 2021, most of which were assembled out of Kunshan and Chongqing, Jiangsu.

CES 2023 focuses on automotive infotainment technology

In 2023, CES will be held in Las Vegas, USA. The all-new concept car and the interactive infotainment experience function in the car of the future has become the focus of major automakers competing to demonstrate. Nvidia has announced a partnership with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), the world's largest technology maker, to develop a platform for self-driving and self-driving vehicles based on Nvidia's Drive Hyperion system. Nvidia is also projecting the GeForce NOW gaming platform onto car screens.

Comments:As new generations of vehicles become autonomous and electrified, interiors will transform into mobile living spaces, complete with the same entertainment facilities at home. In the future, players will be able to enter the virtual world by car. Automakers are still developing a new generation of self-driving cars with the help of the metaverse tool platform.

Apple and Tesla stocks tumble as economic prospects stoke demand worries

In early 2023, US tech stocks will suffer from a 'bad start'. At close of trading on Jan. 3, Apple's stock price fell 3.7 percent to a new low in nearly a year, and its market value fell below $2 trillion. Over the past year, Apple's market value has evaporated by a total of US$1 trillion. Investors are concerned that rising interest rates and falling consumer confidence could hurt demand for Apple's high-priced products.

On Jan. 6, Tesla cut the price of its electric vehicles in China for the second time in less than three months. Tesla is fighting a recession in the global auto market with a 'price war'.

Comments:Analysts believe the issues facing Apple and Tesla have gradually shifted from supply chains to consumer demand issues. Tesla is sacrificing gross profit per car to boost sales. Because their order backlog in China has disappeared. Apple is also lowering supplier prices to reduce the cost of smartphones and counter margin pressure.

The anchor of the game 'carry goods', 'Goose and Duck Kill' rushed to the hot search

A small game 'goose goose duck' ('Goose and Duck Kill') has become a frequent visitor to the recent hot search list. On January 2nd and 3rd, as the server crashed due to the influx of players, #鹿鸡杀# repeatedly topped the search list. The game server crash is mainly due to the large number of Chinese players who joined. Herbert, a member of the game's development team, said in his statement that Chinese players' love for the game made the team 'flattered'. 'Goose and Duck Kill' was launched as early as 21 years ago and remained unknown until the end of 2022 due to the 'carrying goods' of domestic game anchors, which suddenly became popular and introduced a large number of Chinese players.

Comments:Steamdb statistics show that on the evening of January 3, the number of online players in the game exceeded 470,000, which is comparable to other masterpieces such as 'Apex Legends' and 'PUBG'. Zhang Shule told China Business News that 'Goose and Duck Killing' has gone out of the circle in the Chinese market, perhaps more due to the fact that Chinese generation Z gamers have certain habits under the incubation of board games and have a differentiated experience with different tastes Have strong interest.

Qualcomm enters satellite communications and 'fights' with Huawei and Apple

During CES2023, Qualcomm announced an agreement with Iridium Communications (Iridium) to provide satellite connections for the next generation of Android flagship smartphones, and released the world's first solution for two-way communication on high-end smartphones: SnapdragonSatellite (Snapdragon Satellite Communications). Qualcomm said the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform will have built-in support for messaging over satellite connections, and smartphones featuring the technology will be available in the second half of 2023 along with a number of new models.

Comments:Counterpoint analyst Brady said the cost of building communications satellites is high and short-term returns are low. Even Tesla has a high probability that it will not use 'Starlink' to realize the car communication function. Satellite communication can be used to find cars in the automotive field. In addition, there are no applications in a short time. Possibility. However, he told reporters that the function of satellite communication will become mainstream in the future, 'People tend to have a mentality that even if they don't use it once in their life, once they find the need, then this function is very useful.

Midea Welling Auto Parts Anqing Base put into production

On January 6, 2023, the first phase project of Welling Auto Parts Anqing New Energy Auto Parts Base under Midea Group was put into operation. The target of EPS steering motors and 200,000 drive motors is moving forward. Welling's first electric supercharger rolled off the assembly line that day, mainly for major electric vehicle companies such as Ideal, Xiaopeng and Weilai. Welling's 800V electric compressor using CO2 environmentally friendly refrigerant will also be mass-produced.

Comments:In 2023, with the acceleration of major traditional auto brands and the continuous improvement of new energy charging facilities, the market penetration rate of China's new energy vehicles is expected to approach 50%. Welling Auto Parts intends to become a leading supplier of new energy vehicle components globally and open a new growth curve for Midea Group. Welling Auto Parts is actively promoting the industry in the era of 800V ultra-fast charging.

Taiwan, China calls on WTO to join US negotiations on lawsuits against China over chips

Taiwan has asked to join the discussions after China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over US chip sanctions. Taiwan is the second country, after Russia, to ask to participate in the discussion of the cause. 'We have a significant share of the global semiconductor market and have a strong commercial interest in understanding how this dispute will affect our bilateral trade and the demand and supply of semiconductor products in the global market,' Taiwan said.

Comments:According to data from the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI), the semiconductor market in Taiwan, China will be 14.71 billion US dollars in 2021. Mainland China has previously filed a complaint with the WTO over restrictions on export of US chips, accusing the US of threatening the stability of the global supply chain. On Dec. 15 local time, the United States included 36 technology companies, including Yangtze River Storage, on a trade blacklist.

The recovery of the storage market depends on the second half of 2023

On Jan. 5, Guo Zuorong, senior deputy general manager of research at TrendForce, said in an online meeting that the storage market is showing no signs of recovery. It predicts that the price decline of some storage products caused by the supply-demand imbalance is expected to ease in the second half of 2023. 'The consumer market has been affected by the ‘home office' caused by the epidemic. At present, products have been enough or even too many laptops and tablets, which will cause the above markets to decline in terms of shipments in 2023,' said Guo Zuorong.

Comments:To deal with the continued imbalance between market supply and demand, since the fourth quarter of 2022, storage giants such as Samsung and Micron have announced production cuts. In November 2022, Samsung announced it was cutting smartphone production in Vietnam. In December 2022, Micron Technology also announced that it will reduce memory chip production by 20%. The company expects that in 2023, the company's DRAM memory supply will decrease year on year and NAND flash memory supply will increase less more than 10% on an annual basis. According to TrendForce, the storage market oversupply ratio will be 7.1% in 2023, up from 1.7% in 2021.