In 2025, whether from smart cars to smart cities, or from industrial automation to cross-border logistics, core technologies such as sensors, RFID, and AI chips are reshaping the boundaries of the Internet of Everything, and the perception layer of the Internet of Things is ushering in unprecedented development opportunities!
According to data, the scale of China's Internet of Things market is expected to reach 4.55 trillion yuan in 2025, of which the perception layer will contribute 21% of the industry value with many core hardware such as sensors and chips, becoming the "invisible engine" to promote industry growth.
Despite the cold winter of the capital market in recent years, new species companies in the Internet of Things seem to be unaffected, and the financing heat continues unabated. According to the "China Internet of Things New Species Enterprise Development Report 2024" released by Great Wall Strategic Consulting, there will be a total of 187 new species companies in China's Internet of Things in 2023, with a total valuation of more than 130 billion US dollars, achieving three consecutive years of growth, of which there are 78 companies in the perception layer of the Internet of Things; and among the 98 new species of Internet of Things companies that have received financing in 2023, the number of perception layer companies is the largest, accounting for more than 50% of the total number of financing companies, mainly concentrated in 9 tracks such as AI SoC chips, communication chips, and radio frequency chips.
Among them, the total valuation of IoT unicorns in the fields of artificial intelligence components, smart retail, and smart networking all exceeded 10 billion US dollars. Unicorns in the AI SoC chip field took the lead with a total valuation of 24.55 billion US dollars, followed by smart retail and smart networking with 19.6 billion US dollars and 11.68 billion US dollars respectively, winning the favor of the capital market.
The development of new species enterprises has emerged, and the main force of the perception layer still shoulders the development. Driven by the policy of improving the performance of smart connected vehicles, the demand for sensors and chips has surged, the trend of localization has continued to accelerate, the application scenarios of sensor technology will continue to extend, and the deep integration of AI and IoT will become the main line of future technological development.
As the leader of domestic CIS chips, SmartSens has achieved rapid growth in the three major application fields of smartphones, automotive electronics and smart security in the third quarter of 2024. Image sensors have received continuous orders in the field of vehicle-mounted cameras, and for the first time achieved a monthly shipment of more than 100 million CIS chips.
Xinhai Technology's full signal chain AIoT chip realizes the integration of perception, computing, and control, breaking the dependence on imports and providing terminal manufacturers with overall solutions, becoming a partner of HarmonyOS ecological solutions.
Among Hanwei Technology's core business sensors, flexible sensors are in a leading position in China, mastering a number of core technologies, and cooperating with humanoid robot companies such as Yushu Technology, Ninebot Technology, and UBTECH in the field of smart skin.
Conclusion
As the cornerstone of the Internet of Things, the perception layer is continuously consolidating its "main force" position through domestic substitution, scenario extension, and ecological construction. In the future, with the deepening of AIoT integration and the release of policy dividends, perception layer companies are expected to open up broader growth space in trillion-level markets such as smart cars and industrial Internet.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
