Tsinghua Unigroup may acquire Apple's GPU supplier, and now it will have its own CPU and GPU

On April 3, Apple announced that it would stop using all Imagination technologies, including patents, intellectual property, confidential information, etc. within two years. This also means that Imagination's GPU will no longer be used in future Apple processors, and Apple will fully adopt its own GPU. This move caused Imagination's stock price to plummet.

Today, Reuters published a commentary saying that Apple's decision to develop its own GPU shows that the company is determined to have greater control over the core technology in its products. This move can not only maintain high profits, but also gain an advantageous position in future innovations (especially in the so-called augmented reality competition).

Analysts say the strategy reduces Apple's reliance on key external suppliers such as ARM Holdings PLC, which is now owned by SoftBank Group Corp. Apple once relied heavily on ARM to design the main processor for the iPhone, but now the company only purchases basic ARM architecture and designs most of its chips in-house.

Is the cancellation of cooperation with Imagination intended to suppress the stock price and make further acquisitions?

However, according to Imagination's financial report, Apple paid Imagination 60.7 million pounds in licensing fees and copyright fees last fiscal year. It is expected that this part of the fee will increase to 65 million pounds in fiscal 2017. Obviously, such an expense is nothing for Apple. In comparison, if Apple develops GPUs on its own, the annual cost may be higher.

Moreover, another question is whether Apple's own GPU can circumvent Imagination's patents. Imagination also said that its graphics chip design is very complex, and it doubts whether Apple can design a new GPU without infringing its patents, intellectual property rights and confidential information.

Therefore, there is a voice in the industry that believes that the reason why Apple suddenly announced the cancellation of its subsequent cooperation with Imagination was purely to suppress the other party's stock price in order to acquire the other party's company or patents at a lower price.

The latest research report released by US investment bank Jefferies on Tuesday pointed out that Apple's announcement to cancel Imagination Technologies' GPU chip orders caused the latter's stock price to plummet, which may pave the way for Apple to acquire the chip manufacturer.

Jefferies said in a research note: "One analysis is that Apple intends to acquire Imagination to obtain its PowerVR chips, so it uses the news of the cancellation of the cooperation to suppress the latter's value, and also to emphasize Imagination's dependence on Apple. Another possibility is that Apple may acquire Imagination's patent technology to at least provide a safety net for future value. This seems to have a sense of desperate."

CNBC contacted Apple but it declined to comment.

It is worth noting that Apple is the fourth largest shareholder of Imagination, holding 8% of the shares. The sudden announcement of the cancellation of the subsequent cooperation with Imagination caused Imagination's stock price to plummet, which obviously caused a considerable loss to Apple. If Apple really wanted to abandon Imagination, it could have announced the news some time after transferring its Imagination shares. Obviously, Apple did not do so, so this may also indirectly support the speculation that Apple still wants to acquire Imagination.

Last year, Apple confirmed that it was in acquisition talks with Imagination, and although it did not formally make an offer, it at least showed that Apple was interested in acquiring the company. However, Imagination did not agree at the time.

However, the current situation has put Imagination in a very passive position. First, Apple poached a lot of talents from Imagination, and now it has suddenly announced the cancellation of cooperation with Imagination, causing its stock price to plummet. This cannot help but make people suspect that this is a strategy of Apple to force Imagination to agree to the acquisition, and also to lower the acquisition price as much as possible.

Will Tsinghua Unigroup choose to increase its holdings or acquire Imagination?

Although it is not clear whether Apple is really playing tricks and intends to suppress Imagination and then acquire it, Apple is not the only one interested in Imagination. China's Tsinghua Unigroup may also be one of them.

As early as early May last year, Spreadtrum's parent company Tsinghua Unigroup acquired 3% of Imagination's shares. Judging from Tsinghua's previous overseas investments, Tsinghua's investment in Imagination was definitely not for dividends, but for strategic planning.

Currently, Spreadtrum, the main mobile phone chip company under Tsinghua Unigroup, mainly uses ARM public version CPU and GPU cores (the baseband is designed by Spreadtrum itself), and ARM was acquired by Japan's SoftBank last year. Therefore, whether from the perspective of the long-term development of Tsinghua Unigroup, a state-controlled company, or from the perspective of national information security, there needs to be an alternative plan. In addition to Intel, which has been introduced for cooperation before, Imagination should be a good target.

In addition to PowerVR GPU, Imagination also owns MIPS CPU. As early as 2013, Imagination completed the acquisition of MIPS. Currently, the domestic chip company Ingenic uses Imagination's MIPS CPU architecture.

Therefore, for Tsinghua Unigroup, if it can acquire Imagination, it will suddenly have its own "completely independent" CPU and GPU. This should be a good thing no matter from which aspect.

Of course, for smartphones, MIPS CPU is still a little weak in performance, but its advantage is lower power consumption, which makes it more suitable for smart wearable and IoT devices. This should also be the key area for Tsinghua Unigroup to focus on in the future.

So we also saw that at this year's MWC exhibition, Spreadtrum and Intel jointly launched the SC9861G-IA, an 8-core LTE mobile phone chip based on Intel's 14nm process x86 CPU architecture, which is aimed at the high-end market. Moreover, the GPU used in this chip is also from Imagination's PowerVR G6200 GPU.

Obviously, Spreadtrum, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, wants to enter the high-end smartphone chip market. In terms of GPU, Imagination's PowerVR GPU is still a good choice. Tsinghua Unigroup's acquisition of Imagination will greatly help Spreadtrum's future development in the high-end market. Moreover, whether in the new AR, VR or AI fields, GPU chips are a very important key link. And this may be an important reason why Tsinghua Unigroup acquired a stake in Imagination.

It is also worth mentioning that after yesterday's 61% plunge, Imagination's stock price has fallen by about 12% as of today's press time. The current stock price should have fallen by about 50% compared to when Tsinghua Unigroup first invested in Imagination. So the current price of Imagination is too cheap for Tsinghua Unigroup, which has just received 150 billion yuan in investment and financing from the "national team".

Moreover, now that Imagination has just been "abandoned" by Apple, coupled with the appreciation of the RMB and the sharp depreciation of the British pound, it is a good time to acquire the British Imagination. Even if you do not consider acquiring Imagination, you can cover your position at the appropriate time, otherwise the previous investment will be a big loss.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.