On August 5, Chipone Technology, a leading manufacturer of display driver chips, completed its pre-listing guidance registration with the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau, officially launching its IPO guidance for the Science and Technology Innovation Board. The guidance institution is CITIC Securities Co., Ltd.
Xiaomi, Huawei, and TCL have invested in Jichuang Beifang, which holds the top market share in LED display driver chips. Founded in 2008 with a registered capital of 431 million yuan, Jichuang Beifang's legal representative is Zhang Jinfang. Investors include Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund, Huawei Hubble Technology, TCL Venture Capital, and vivo. According to Qichacha's official website, Jichuang Beifang has completed seven rounds of financing since its inception, including a Series E round of over 6.5 billion yuan, after which its valuation exceeded 30 billion yuan.
Since its establishment, Chipone Technology has focused on the research, design and sales of display chips. It has four main product lines: LED display driver chips, panel display driver chips, power management chips and control chips, covering mainstream display technologies such as LCD, LED and OLED. Its main customers include LED display manufacturers such as Leyard, Unilumin Technology and Absen, and panel manufacturers such as BOE, TCL CSOT and HKC. Its products are widely used by terminal brands such as TCL, LG, Samsung, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi.
In the field of LED display driver chips, Chipone Technology has maintained its leading position in recent years, both in terms of revenue and shipments. According to data, from 2022 to 2024, Chipone Technology ranked first in the world in LED display driver chip market share for three consecutive years, accounting for more than 40%.
Furthermore, Chipone Technology has consistently maintained a leading position in the panel display (TV/MNT/NB) driver chip field. For example, according to data, in 2024, Chipone Technology ranked fourth globally in the MNT display driver chip market with a market share exceeding 10%.
It's worth noting that this is not Jichuang Beifang's first IPO application. In 2022, Jichuang Beifang initiated its listing process on the STAR Market, but voluntarily withdrew its application in 2023 due to the downturn in the display and semiconductor industries that year. If it successfully lists on the STAR Market this time, Jichuang Beifang is expected to become the first company to list across all categories of display chips on the STAR Market.
With more new entrants, competition in the LED display driver IC market is intensifying . It has been observed that, affected by increased macroeconomic uncertainty, the global LED display market size growth in 2024 fell short of expectations. However, as the pixel pitch of LED displays continues to shrink, driver chip shipments maintained growth. In 2024, LED display driver chip shipments reached 14,000 KK/year, a year-on-year increase of 3%.
In the long run, Mini/Micro LED is the inevitable trend, and the market size will continue to grow. Meanwhile, the proportion of small-pitch and ultra-small-pitch displays will continue to increase, driving continued growth in driver chip shipments. Although product prices are also trending downwards, the rate of price decline is expected to slow as the proportion of high-end products gradually increases. The overall output value of LED display driver chips is projected to reach US$384 million in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 2%. Driven by this demand growth, Chipone Technology's revenue and shipments are expected to maintain growth.
From a competitive landscape perspective, the global LED display driver chip market is currently highly concentrated, with the top three manufacturers accounting for nearly 70% of revenue. Nevertheless, in recent years, small and medium-sized manufacturers have shown strong growth momentum, and new manufacturers have also entered the market (such as titanium platinum strontium), making market competition increasingly fierce. This means that in the future, the market will place higher demands on manufacturers' technological innovation capabilities, resource integration capabilities, and cost control.
Currently, Chipone Technology is actively promoting the research and development of innovative technologies such as automotive display chips and SoC chips, while further expanding its product line by developing advanced technologies such as MLED display and silicon-based OLED display.
Taking automotive display technology as an example, Chipone Technology's Mini LED automotive display chip business has made progress and breakthroughs. In May of this year, Chipone Technology's independently developed first domestically produced automotive-grade bridging chip with integrated local dimming function, ICNM7810B, has achieved mass production and shipment in domestically produced consumer-grade Mini LED display products. It is worth noting that the Avita 07, to be released in 2024, will already be equipped with Chipone Technology's Mini LED driver chips ICND7001 and ICND7201. This series of products is the first set of mass-produced automotive-grade chips from Chipone Technology's automotive business unit.
Building on this foundation, Chipone Technology will continue to increase its R&D efforts in automotive-grade display products and ultra-small pitch display products. Among these, it is understood that the 48-channel/90-line scan common cathode driver IC is one of Chipone Technology's main products. In addition, the ICND3289 common cathode driver chip integrates 384 channels of constant current output, supports 128 RGB real pixels and 96 RGBX virtual pixels, supports 1-90 line scan applications, features low grayscale and high refresh rate, and provides more accurate color reproduction, meeting the requirements of P0.39 ultra-small pitch display effects.
In the Mini/Micro LED era, highly integrated chips based on common-cathode driving structures have become the current and future technological trend, and major manufacturers are accelerating their deployment through various means such as technological innovation and supply chain collaboration. Whether Chipone Technology can successfully go public, expand its scale, and maintain its leading position will be closely watched by the industry.
