According to a report by Jiwei.com in December 2023, Luxshare Precision has taken an important step in the global radio frequency chip manufacturing field and reached a final acquisition agreement with the American radio frequency chip giant Qorvo. The acquisition involves Qorvo's assembly and test facilities in Beijing and Texas. Upon completion of the transaction, Luxshare Precision will take over the operations and assets of these plants, including land, buildings and equipment, as well as the existing workforce. At the same time, Qorvo will retain its sales, engineering and customer support teams in mainland China.
Semiconductor industry analysts in Taiwan believe that the impact of this acquisition on Taiwan-related semiconductor companies will be limited. Although Luxshare Precision's move has attracted attention in the industry, Taiwanese companies still maintain a leading position in the key front-end technology of radio frequency power amplifiers (PA). According to internal sources, Apple is a key factor driving the Luxshare Precision and Qorvo deal.
As a world-renowned RF IDM supplier, Qorvo has always been an important partner of Apple and one of its largest customers. In addition, compound semiconductor companies in Taiwan, such as Wenmao Semiconductor, AWSC, Visual Photonics Epitaxy, etc., all maintain close upstream cooperation relationships with Qorvo.
Industry insiders pointed out that the two factories in mainland China sold by Qorvo to Luxshare Precision mainly provide back-end services. The profits in this area are much lower than those in front-end manufacturing technology, and the advantage of Taiwanese companies lies precisely in front-end manufacturing technology. Grant Bowen, Qorvo's chief financial officer, said the transaction will reduce the company's capital intensity while helping to achieve its long-term gross profit margin goals and continue to maintain close ties with customers in China.
In this Luxshare Precision acquisition, it is worth noting that most of Qorvo’s sales come from Apple, but its customer base also includes heavyweight companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, OPPO, Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm. At the same time, Luxshare Precision is also the main manufacturer of Apple AirPods, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. Therefore, this transaction between Qorvo and Luxshare Precision is expected to bring greater stability and efficiency to Apple’s supply chain.