Huawei continues to expand its business segments, and those that can directly participate mainly achieve layout by establishing specialized business departments or legions. For example, Huawei first established 15 legion organizations, corresponding to 15 different business areas.
But Huawei will also enter more other industry markets through investment. For example, Hubble Technology, a subsidiary of Huawei, has officially invested in a sodium-ion battery company, which means that Huawei will expand its layout of sodium-ion batteries. What specific investment layout actions are there? Why did Huawei enter the sodium ion market?
Huawei has experienced a lot over the years, and has always participated in the development of the global market with a spirit of resilience and perseverance. Some existing businesses have experienced changes in external events, which have brought uncertainty to revenue. This can be seen from Huawei's revenue drop of more than 200 billion in 2021.
However, Huawei has not given up and is still actively exploring the path to sustainable development, so Huawei has specially established Hubble Technology Investment Company.
Huawei Hubble has invested in dozens of semiconductor companies, covering the semiconductor fields including EDA, sensors, silicon carbide, etc. But in addition to semiconductors, Huawei has also expanded into new areas.
Public information shows that Huawei Hubble became a shareholder of Beijing Zhongke Haina Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zhongke Haina"). Huawei Hubble invested 4.12666 million yuan and held 133,333 shares.
Zhongke Haina is a company specializing in sodium-ion battery technology. It was established in 2017. The company has a number of core technology patents for sodium-ion batteries.
On the one hand, the company has not been established for a long time. On the other hand, sodium-ion batteries do not have much capital focus compared to lithium-ion batteries.
Of course, there is no doubt about the R&D strength of the company Zhongke Haina. The R&D team behind it includes Chen Liquan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a team led by Hu Yongsheng of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These provide great technical support and guarantee for the company to develop sodium-ion batteries.
Since Huawei has launched this investment layout, it must have its own reasons. Therefore, what are the prospects for sodium-ion batteries, and why is Huawei allowed to expand its layout?
In the conventional commercial market, most investment actions are inseparable from two driving factors. One is the company's related business development needs, and the other is the large market potential, which has won the favor of capital parties. From these two perspectives, we can understand why Huawei has this layout and what the prospects are for the sodium ion market.
The first is the company's business perspective.
Huawei’s mainstream businesses include communications, 5G or chips, which do not seem to have much to do with battery technology. But don’t forget that Huawei has entered the smart car industry.
Although Huawei has repeatedly emphasized that it does not build cars, the research and development of related facilities and software and hardware equipment is among its development goals. Such as smart screens, Hongmeng cockpit, in-vehicle operating systems, etc., the whole can be summarized as a full-vehicle intelligent solution.
This may also include battery technology. Sodium-ion batteries are favored by Huawei, presumably to provide better support for related products so that they can bring core technology product advantages to the smart car market in the future.
The second is the perspective of market prospects.
The current mainstream battery material is lithium-ion. There are many domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturers, such as CATL and BYD, which are industry leaders with technological advantages and complete industrial chain layout.
However, in the sodium-ion battery industry, domestic related companies are still limited, mainly including Zhongke Hainan, CATL, Xinwangda and so on. Although there are relevant companies involved, the industry chain is still on the rise.
Compared with the cost of lithium-ion battery cathode material 43, the cost of sodium ion cathode material is only 26. This shows that sodium-ion battery products have a better price advantage than lithium-ion batteries and will have higher efficiency for the development of the industrial chain.
Another key advantage is that sodium-ion batteries have relatively high compatibility. Except for some differences in positive and negative electrode materials, the related manufacturing processes can be carried out together.
For example, the electrolyte solute of sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries is sodium hexafluorophosphate, and manufacturing equipment can also use lithium-ion infrastructure. In other words, as long as the sodium ion technology is mature and investment projects are in place, a rapidly developing sodium ion production line may soon be formed to further promote the development of the sodium ion market.
Looking at the broader market prospects, some organizations predict that sodium-ion batteries will form a trillion-dollar market by 2030.
Zhongke Haina invested by Huawei. Based on the company’s current research capabilities and the future development potential of sodium-ion batteries, Huawei may be making a big move. Huawei has already made a move, and when the time comes in the future, it will be time to take advantage.
Huawei is planning another trillion-dollar market, bigger than 5G? If the sodium-ion battery market develops far beyond expectations, it may indeed bring more surprises. However, it will take time to verify whether it can surpass the scale of the 5G market. Everything has just begun, let us wait and see.
Huawei’s goal pattern is very far-reaching, and it has definitely made plans for the future industrial development direction. As for what kind of results can be achieved, we still need to wait and see. I hope that Huawei’s continuous actions will be rewarded accordingly.
What do you think about this?