Steal the enemy's base at the start and build a technological empire.

Chapter 416 Huawei adopts Spark ARM chips

July 15, Shenzhen, Huawei headquarters.

Ren Zhengfei stood at the conference room door, wearing a dark blue jacket, his hair even whiter than the last time he saw him. He saw Ling Yun come out of the elevator, take a few steps forward, and extend his hand.

"Mr. Ling, welcome."

The two shook hands and entered the conference room. Seven or eight people were already seated inside, all senior technical executives from Huawei. On the long table sat a green circuit board with a silver-gray chip soldered onto it, bearing the Spark logo—a five-pointed star.

Huawei's technical director stood up and walked to the whiteboard. "We've been testing Spark's ARM chip for six months. From last December until now, it's been running for over two thousand hours in access network equipment. Power consumption, stability, and compatibility have all met commercial standards. In terms of performance, it's about 10% worse than Qualcomm's equivalent chip. But its power consumption is 15% lower, and its price is 30% lower. Overall, Spark's product is better in terms of cost-effectiveness."

He turned a page; it contained several test reports. "We also tested Spark's switching chip and power management chip. The switching chip, used in low-end switches, has forwarding performance similar to Broadcom's equivalent products. The power management chip, used in base stations, is two percentage points more efficient than TI's. The overall assessment conclusion is: Spark's chips can replace imports."

A few seconds of silence filled the conference room. Ren Zhengfei looked at Ling Yun and said, "President Ling, Huawei has decided to gradually adopt Xinghuo's ARM chips as control chips for switches, access network equipment, and base stations. But it's not all yet, only some. We'll start with low-end products, and move on to high-end products once they're running smoothly."

"At the same time, we hope to jointly develop next-generation communication-specific chips with Spark. Baseband, radio frequency, and network processors are dominated by Qualcomm and Broadcom. Huawei wants to make its own, but no one is doing it, and there's nowhere to fabricate chips. You have ARM licenses, design capabilities, and production lines. We'll provide the requirements and the testing environment. You provide the technology and the chips. Once it's made, Huawei will use it first, and we'll test and refine it."

Ling Yun said, "Okay, we can work together."

"We can license ARM's instruction set to Huawei. You design your own chips, and we'll handle the manufacturing. We'll prioritize Huawei's orders in terms of chip production capacity."

Ren Zhengfei was silent for a few seconds. He picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and put it down. Then he looked at Ling Yun and said, "President Ling, this is a very generous gift you've given us."

Ling Yun smiled and said, "This isn't a gift, it's a collaboration. Huawei makes communication equipment, and Xinghuo makes chips. When you use our chips, we get orders. With orders, we can iterate and improve. We won't have to depend on Qualcomm and Broadcom anymore. This isn't about one helping the other; it's about mutual support and moving forward together."

Ren Zhengfei stood up and extended his hand. Ling Yun also stood up, and they clasped hands together.

That afternoon, both parties signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Huawei committed to purchasing no less than $50 million worth of ARM chips from Xinghuo over the next three years. Xinghuo pledged to prioritize Huawei's production capacity and offer ARM instruction set licensing to support Huawei's self-developed chips. The two parties jointly established a communication chip laboratory, with Huawei providing the requirements, the laboratory handling the design, and Xinghuo handling the manufacturing, to jointly develop next-generation baseband, radio frequency, and network processor chips.

After signing the papers, Ren Zhengfei escorted Ling Yun to the elevator. As the elevator doors opened, he suddenly asked, "Mr. Ling, how old are you this year?"

Ling Yun said, "Twenty-eight."

Ren Zhengfei nodded. "When I was twenty-eight, I was still serving in the army. You were already working on operating systems, chips, and the supply chain."

Ling Yun said, "President Ren, you flatter me."

Ren Zhengfei shook his head. "It's not a compliment, it's the truth. Our generation fought in wars, and we know that without our own resources, we'll be bullied. What you're doing now is ensuring that we won't be bullied in the future."

The elevator doors closed. Ling Yun stood inside, watching the floor indicator lights tick down one by one. He recalled what Ren Zhengfei had just said—"If you don't have anything of your own, you'll be bullied."

Spark now has its own chips, its own system, and its own ecosystem. But it still lacks baseband chips. Spreadtrum is working on it, but mass production is still a long way off.

Qualcomm and Broadcom will not sit idly by and wait to be replaced; they will fight back with patents, prices, and market strategies.

The elevator doors opened, and Ling Yun stepped out. Zhao Hu was already waiting at the door. Ling Yun got into his car, took out his phone, and sent a text message to Ni Guangnan: "The Huawei agreement is signed; the baseband chip needs to be accelerated."

A few seconds later, Ni Guangnan replied: "Spreadtrum said that the first version of the test chip will be released before the end of the year."

Ling Yun looked at the text message, put his phone back in his pocket, and another piece of the puzzle fell to the ground.