Author / Baked buns under the starry sky
Edit / Spinach's starry sky
Typeset / Milk tea under the starry sky
A news from the previous two days successfully attracted the author's attention, that is, Tencent began to invest in hard technology.
Things are like this: Yunbao Intelligent, a semiconductor company focusing on data processing chip DPU and cloud computing. Founder Xiao Qiyang has been in the semiconductor industry for more than 20 years. After Tencent entered this time, it also became Yunbao's largest shareholder.
yunbao Intelligent Equity Structure (partial)
Friends who don’t understand the semiconductor industry may ask, I have heard of CPU (central processor), GPU (image processor), how come a DPU pops up now? The background of the emergence of DPU is also accompanied by the development of 5G and big data, and the demand for network data processing has also shown an exponential growth. In addition, the important policy of East and West Calculation has made DPU appear in the center of the stage in the past two years.
In fact, only last year, start-up players on the domestic DPU track such as Nebula Zhilian and Dayu Zhixin have completed financing of 00 million yuan in . The capital promoters behind it are CDH, Hillhouse , Sequoia China, etc. The foreign DPU boom started earlier, and the mark was that in April 2020, Nvidia announced the completion of the acquisition of Israeli network chip player (Mellanox) 6.9 billion .
DPU is coming in full force this time. Is there really anything worth looking forward to in this blue ocean market? Can DPU really seize the cake of the CPU and GPU data center market? Today I will take you to find out.
application scenarios support a whole sky
Before the DPU appeared, the processing logic of network data was mainly centered on the CPU (brain), and the CPU was unified dispatched. However, this structure will have two types of problems: . On the one hand, the performance of data processing will be limited, and on the other hand, the computing power of the upper layer of the CPU will be limited. With the massive growth of network data, the emergence of DPUs is so natural.
Differents of three chips (NVIDIA)
DPU is also expected to become the third main chip after CPU and GPU, thereby improving the efficiency of in the overall computing system and reducing the cost of in the overall system. For example, a traditional infrastructure running a data center will generally consume 20-30% of the CPU core resources, while the emergence of DPU can reduce the burden on the CPU.
demand is the ballast for the long-term development of DPU. In general, there are four main categories of application scenarios of DPU: network security, artificial intelligence , industrial Internet, intelligent driving , etc. Not to mention anything else, just take intelligent driving as an example. Some time ago, Beijing Yizhuang had already opened an autonomous driving experience with no one in the driving space, which means that intelligent driving has officially entered the era of unmanned in China. Intelligent driving must ensure the reliability and real-time transmission of data, and the advantages of DPU in this regard can be revealed.
Of course, it must be admitted that the development of DPU is still in its early stages, and the CPU still has a dominant position. The key to the development of DPU is to pay attention to the ecological construction of and the support of applications mentioned earlier . For example, in the intelligent driving track, DPU players and smart cars of L3 or above achieve deep binding, which is one of the main means to build an early "moat".
As the downstream application scenarios continue to enrich and improve, according to institutions, the DPU market will usher in explosive growth from 2023 to 2024. By the end of 2025, the DPU market size will be close to US$25 billion (the domestic scale is about US$8.5 billion). In five years, it has exceeded 38 times the growth of , comparable to photovoltaics and wind power in the new energy track.
Global DPU market size (US$ 10 million)
The Internet market that prefers
DPU is still in the 0-1 stage, and the maturity of technology becomes more important. If you expand the DPU track, you will find that like other chips, upstream is EDA (electronic design automation), IP core, manufacturing, packaging and other links. Overall, domestic players do not have a deep accumulation of technology in EDA and IP cores, and there is still a big gap with foreign players such as Synopsys, Cadence, etc. downstream is a rich application scenario. Take cloud computing as an example. The world's three giants Amazon , Google , Microsoft firmly occupies the top three.
DPU players are in the middle stage of the industrial chain
, and the middle stage is an active start at home and abroad, and are still in a situation where a hundred schools of thought contend. Although the domestic market is mainly occupied by leading companies, such as Nvidia as the pioneer, followed by Broadcom and Intel .
However, domestic players who have deeply understood the three words "bottleneck", whether they are domestic chip companies. They are also Internet giants and start-up players. Everyone is divided into three groups and attacks the crown jewel. Judging from the layout, in addition to the fierce battle between PE and VCs, this track is also full of Internet. If the author does not count the wrong statistics, Tencent, Alibaba , ByteDance, Meituan , Baidu and other Internet giants have come. What is the logic behind it?
20 domestic DPU market share
is of course the reason behind collaborative . I just mentioned that the application scenarios of DPU are mainly in the fields of data centers, cloud computing, network security, etc., so the customers of DPU players are Internet companies, cloud service providers, etc. But you may ask, why don’t Internet companies develop their own chips? A very realistic problem is placed in front of them, that is time .
In fact, without long-term accumulation of chip talents and experience, it is difficult to meet the computing needs of independent chip development. Generally speaking, the DPU needs at least 2-3 years time period from design to mature application. Moreover, according to the author's understanding, starting next year, we will enter the period of centralized replacement of data center equipment. Combined with the strong promotion of Eastern and Western calculations, Internet players should not just use capital to consolidate their technology.
Professionals do professional things and have specialized in their professions, that's it.
hard technology will eventually stand on the stage of history
says one thousand things. Although DPU chips, as one of the most important chips in new data centers, have been widely agreed upon by industry insiders, the entire market is still in the 0-1 stage, and there are not many targets that can be selected in the secondary market.
Moreover, looking at the players on the track, they are still in the competitive landscape of many heroes, and everyone is exploring the maturity of technology and the feasibility of commercialization. It will take some time to transform from technology to revenue.
From the perspective of the driving force behind DPU players, in addition to the traditional PE/VC, Internet players have also purchased from the previous community group purchase, and have all ended up in hard technology. Only by moving forward in the coordinated way in the industrial chain can the development of DPU be put on the fast lane.
Note: This article does not constitute any investment advice. The stock market is risky, so be cautious when entering the market. There is no harm without a transaction.
