Since the beginning of this year, Intel has been taking frequent actions online in its data center business, accelerating its layout in the chip and industry chain ecosystem.
According to the Tianyancha App, recently, Dongguan Lixun Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Lixun Precision (002475), underwent an industrial and commercial change, with the addition of Intel (China) Co., Ltd. as a shareholder. At the same time, the registered capital increased from approximately RMB 571 million to approximately RMB 589 million.
This also means that Intel, as a perennial customer of Lixun Precision, is now further deepening its cooperation in terms of capital and business. An industry chain insider told 21st Century Business Herald that Intel's investment in this is in a subsidiary of the communication sector under Luxon Precision, mainly focusing on data center businesses. Strategic investments will also help Luxon open up the North American AI server market.
It is understood that the areas of cooperation between Intel and Lixun Technology have always included data center optical/electrical connections, liquid cooled cooling systems, power systems, etc., and have provided high-speed interconnection and thermal management solutions to multiple enterprises in the Intel Partner Alliance (IPA) and the general server industry technology innovation chain.
In recent years, the demand for generative AI has driven the market space of the server and switch industry chain, with communication connectivity being an important link. In the trend of heterogeneous computing, both the interconnection between GPUs and the interconnection between GPUs and CPUs are becoming increasingly important.
On the one hand, for Lixun Precision, on the basis of consumer electronics business, it is accelerating the development of communication/data center business.
At present, in this track, Lixun Precision has laid out products such as electrical connection, optical connection, air-cooled/liquid cooled cooling, power management, RF, etc. In 2023, the related revenue was 14.538 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.28%, accounting for 6.27% of the total revenue.
In terms of expanding business opportunities, Lixun Precision previously told 21st Century Business Herald reporters, "The rapid iteration of AI technology has driven the rapid growth of computing power demand, while also placing higher requirements on hardware performance such as transmission and heat dissipation. Faced with new opportunities, the company accurately positions its domestic and foreign top cloud service customers, forms a differentiated competitive advantage, and opens up more growth momentum for the company's second growth curve."
On the other hand, Intel itself is also accelerating its layout in the AI industry ecosystem. Faced with this wave of AI, chip manufacturers are building new barriers from multiple aspects such as standards, hardware manufacturers, and software systems.
When it comes to cooperation, the industry chain insiders mentioned above also pointed out, "Based on the transmission speed and specification requirements of the next generation server/switch chips, Lixun can collaborate with Intel to conduct pre research and development of high-speed interconnection products in advance, to customize and match the needs of the next generation chips, and to solve the pain points of current server/switch transmission in a targeted manner, such as the loss of copper cable connection for long-distance transmission, high bandwidth in heat dissipation and power consumption, and so on."
From institutional data, the sales of servers will continue to increase this year. TrendForce Consulting estimates that global server shipments will increase by 2.05% annually in 2024, with AI servers accounting for approximately 12.1%. Meanwhile, the market still focuses on deploying AI servers, with AI server shipments accounting for approximately 12.1%. Faced with a growing market, major manufacturers are increasing their investment in AI servers and related technologies to seize the opportunity.