By Fang Yuan
In 2026, domestic Wi-Fi chip manufacturers are collectively delivering their best historical results: Beken Corporation anticipates a nearly 150% to 176% year-on-year increase in net profit attributable to shareholders for the first half of the year; ASR Microelectronics expects to achieve a net profit of 85 million RMB, turning profitable year-on-year; and Espressif Systems sees its second-quarter revenue surpass 800 million RMB for the first time.
This is not merely an exceptional performance by individual companies, but a systematic realization following years of technological accumulation across the industry. Although Wi-Fi chips represent only a niche track in the wireless connectivity field, they cater to the massive demand ranging from smart homes to industrial IoT (Internet of Things), and from low-altitude economy to AI (Artificial Intelligence) terminals. Their prosperity often serves as a microcosm of the structural changes in the entire semiconductor industry.
01. Wi-Fi Manufacturers Embrace a Harvest Season
If 2025 was a year of building momentum for domestic Wi-Fi chip manufacturers, then 2026 is undoubtedly the year of comprehensive realization. From the semi-annual reports and earnings forecasts of multiple listed companies, a common theme is clearly visible: earlier R&D investments have entered a phase of scaled harvest.
Beken Corporation is a typical representative of this round of performance explosion. The company expects to achieve an operating revenue of 620 million to 640 million RMB in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 65% to 70%, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of 48 million to 53 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of nearly 150% to 176%. The core driver of this surge is that the Wi-Fi 6 MCU (Microcontroller Unit) and Edge AI chips developed in the early stage have fully entered the stage of scaled mass production and shipment in downstream mainstream customer terminal projects. The strategic transformation from 'connectivity' to 'connectivity + edge intelligence' has positioned Beken Corporation advantageously in the wave of IoT and AI integration.
ASR Microelectronics' turnaround is equally symbolic. The company expects to achieve an operating revenue of 2.45 billion RMB in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 29%, and a net profit of 85 million RMB, compared to a loss of 245 million RMB in the same period last year. The performance improvement is mainly attributed to the continuous increase in downstream penetration of cellular baseband chips, with revenue growing by about 23% year-on-year; meanwhile, revenue from chip customization services for AI application scenarios has surged by approximately 157% year-on-year, becoming a new source of profit growth. ASR Microelectronics' turnaround signifies that domestic Wi-Fi and communication chip companies, after a long period of R&D investment, are gradually establishing sustainable profit models.
As the global leader in the Wi-Fi MCU niche market, Espressif Systems achieved an operating revenue of 1.481 billion RMB in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 18.88%, and a net profit of 334 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of 27.93%. Its profitability has improved significantly, with the gross profit margin reaching 49.32%, an increase of 4.12 percentage points year-on-year. The increase in the gross profit margin benefits from the continuous optimization of the product structure and also reflects the enhanced differentiated value of products after the IoT industry transitions from the 'connectivity-driven' stage to the 'function-driven' stage. In the Wi-Fi MCU niche market, Espressif Systems ranks first globally in shipment volume and fifth globally in the overall Wi-Fi market.
In the field of Wi-Fi RF front-end (FEM), Khonmi Communication also delivered an outstanding performance. In 2025, the company's overall revenue reached 683 million RMB, with the core Wi-Fi FEM business growing by 26.95% year-on-year, and the revenue proportion of Wi-Fi 7 products breaking through 50%. Entering 2026, the company achieved an operating revenue of 182 million RMB in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 34.80%, and a net profit of 4.875 million RMB, successfully turning a loss into a profit. The Wi-Fi 7 series products have become the core engine of the company's growth, accounting for over 50% of the operating revenue.
Furthermore, Amlogic saw a substantial surge in performance in the first half of 2026, with a projected revenue of 4.391 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 31.85%, and a net profit of 608 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of 22.44%. The company's W-series Wi-Fi 6 chip business continues to scale up, with product sales increasing significantly in the second quarter, making wireless connectivity chips an important new growth driver for the company. Goke Microelectronics' IoT series chips achieved a sales revenue of 128 million RMB in the first half of 2025, a substantial year-on-year increase of 251.37%.
The industry background for this round of performance explosion is that the global Wi-Fi chip market is in a high-prosperity cycle. Market data shows that the market value of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E chipsets was approximately 39.03 billion USD in 2024 and is expected to grow to 107.4 billion USD by 2033. The global Wi-Fi chipset market size was about 21 to 24 billion USD in 2025 and is expected to continue expanding at a mid-single-digit compound annual growth rate between 2026 and 2034. The Chinese market has become the fastest-growing region globally, with an expected growth rate of over 11% from 2026 to 2030.
02. From Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 8
The prosperity of the Wi-Fi chip industry is fundamentally driven by the generational iteration of technical standards. Each round of standard upgrades means that chip manufacturers need to redesign products and customers need to replace equipment, thereby releasing huge market increments.
The mainstream of the current market remains Wi-Fi 6. Since Wi-Fi 6 officially started certification in 2019, this standard has become the preferred choice for ordinary households and small and medium-sized enterprises, thanks to its precise match for rigid demands: the balance between performance and cost. The theoretical peak rate of Wi-Fi 6 reaches 9.6Gbps, supporting OFDMA and 8-stream MU-MIMO technologies, ensuring smooth transmission and latency control between 10 to 30 milliseconds when multiple devices are connected. It is this mature and stable technical platform that provides fertile growth soil for domestic manufacturers such as Beken Corporation, Espressif Systems, and Amlogic.
As a new-generation standard, Wi-Fi 7 has a theoretical peak rate of 46.1Gbps, supporting 320MHz ultra-wide channels and 4096-QAM modulation technology, with latency as low as 1 to 5 milliseconds. However, the popularization of Wi-Fi 7 still faces three core challenges: limited spectrum—the 6GHz band in China is prioritized for mobile communication, with limited civilian opening; lagging terminal ecosystem—smartphones and computers supporting Wi-Fi 7 account for less than 10%; and persistently high costs, with chip and module costs being 2 to 3 times that of Wi-Fi 6. In the next 2 to 3 years, Wi-Fi 6 will still dominate the market.
The arrival of Wi-Fi 8 is even more attention-grabbing. In January 2026, MediaTek took the lead in releasing the new-generation Wi-Fi 8 chip platform, the Filogic 8000 series, at CES 2026. Broadcom subsequently launched the industry's first Wi-Fi 8 router integrated chips, BCM6772, BCM6774, and BCM6776, and has sent samples to customers such as ASUS for testing. Qualcomm also released its first chip supporting Wi-Fi 8. Domestic manufacturers are equally determined not to fall behind, with Khonmi Communication planning to launch core products supporting the Wi-Fi 8 protocol within 2026.
The core improvement of Wi-Fi 8 over Wi-Fi 7 does not lie in the peak rate, but focuses on reliability, coverage, and concurrent efficiency in high-density and long-distance scenarios. Through multi-AP collaboration, dynamic resource scheduling, and enhanced link design, Wi-Fi 8 can increase actual throughput by about 2 times, reduce P99 latency to one-sixth of Wi-Fi 7, and expand IoT coverage by about 2 times. If Wi-Fi 7 solves the problem of 'whether it can be fast,' Wi-Fi 8 solves the problem of 'whether it can be stable.'
03. Breakthrough in High-End Wi-Fi Chips: Domestic Full-Chain Efforts
In terms of market share, according to statistics from market research firm Counterpoint Research, in the market of Wi-Fi 6, 6E, and Wi-Fi 7, which represents the technological frontier of the industry, Broadcom ranks first with a 24% share, followed by Qualcomm with 19%, and MediaTek ranks third with 13%.
The strategic paths of the three giants have their respective focuses. Broadcom's confidence stems from its hard power of 'full-chain independent and controllable' capabilities. From the RF front-end and baseband processing to switch chips and SoC (System on Chip) cores, almost all key components can be independently developed and produced. It mainly targets the high-end market, with major clients including Apple Inc., and most of the world's high-end wireless routers and enterprise-grade APs also widely adopt Broadcom chips. Qualcomm is a representative of ecosystem builders; its Wi-Fi platform integrates complete solutions for AI processing, Mesh networking, and carrier-grade management. It is deeply coupled with the Snapdragon platform on the mobile end and provides end-to-end carrier-grade management capabilities on the network side. MediaTek's advantage lies in the auxiliary support of the massive mobile phone market, coupled with multi-point support from markets such as AI IoT and network communications.
In the broader dimension of the Wi-Fi ecosystem, Cisco, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and MediaTek rank in the top five, with a combined share of approximately 41.4%. Furthermore, Realtek has a strong presence in the PC and consumer electronics Wi-Fi fields, while Intel holds a place in laptops and platform-level integration. The top six global chip design companies collectively hold about 63% of the market share. It should be pointed out that the statistical calibers of market share for leading manufacturers vary; some are calculated based on the niche market of Wi-Fi 6/6E/7, while others are calculated based on the broader Wi-Fi ecosystem dimension, but the pattern of Broadcom, Qualcomm, and MediaTek firmly ranking at the forefront of the industry is clear.
In this global landscape dominated by giants, Chinese manufacturers are catching up from multiple dimensions, and the speed of catching up is accelerating.
In the niche track of IoT Wi-Fi MCU, Chinese companies have achieved the leap from catching up to leading. Espressif Systems ranks first globally in shipment volume in the Wi-Fi MCU niche market and fifth globally in the entire Wi-Fi market, trailing only MediaTek, Qualcomm, Realtek, and Broadcom. According to data from the semiconductor industry research firm TSR, Espressif's market share in global Wi-Fi MCU shipment volume reaches 35.2%, firmly ranking first globally for many consecutive years. Beken Corporation also holds an important share in the IoT Wi-Fi field, and the two combined account for about 80% of the IoT Wi-Fi MCU market.
In the data transmission Wi-Fi market with higher technical barriers, especially in the field of Wi-Fi AP (Access Point) chips, Wuqi Microelectronics has successfully developed a Wi-Fi 6 AP chip based on the RISC-V architecture with performance comparable to international mainstream products after years of research, becoming one of the extremely few Chinese companies that possess independent intellectual property rights and mass supply capabilities. Its Wi-Fi 6 AP chip has passed the certification of the State Radio Monitoring Center Testing Center and the China Mobile chip warehousing review, and has supplied small batches to ZTE Microelectronics and Changhong. Wuqi Microelectronics' STAR Market IPO was accepted in June 2026, planning to raise 1.619 billion RMB. Sutong Semiconductor's Wi-Fi 6/6E AP chipset achieves a maximum theoretical data rate of 3000Mbps and has passed the strict system-level certification of China's leading service providers.
In the field of Wi-Fi STA (Station) chips, Wuqi has also covered the full series from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 6, with a shipment volume of over 100 million units throughout 2025. Aicsemi Technology's Wi-Fi 6 chip is the first domestically mass-produced and certified Wi-Fi 6 chip, and also the only domestic Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip that has passed Microsoft WHQL certification and AEC-Q100 automotive-grade certification. Its automotive-grade Wi-Fi chips have been applied to automotive brands such as Dongfeng, FAW, and Chery.
In the field of Wi-Fi RF front-end (FEM), the achievements of domestic manufacturers are equally remarkable. Khonmi Communication has formed a complete product system from Wi-Fi 5 FEM to Wi-Fi 7 FEM. Throughout 2025, its Wi-Fi FEM products achieved a revenue of 638 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of 26.95%. The proportion of Wi-Fi 7 series products in operating revenue has broken through 50%, becoming the core engine of performance growth. The company has also made a forward-looking layout—it launched Wi-Fi 8 FEM pre-research in 2025, and multiple Wi-Fi 8 products have been sent to international mainstream Wi-Fi main chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, and MediaTek for technical docking and reference design certification.
04. AI Integration, Internet of Everything, and New Tracks
The integration of AI and edge computing, the continuous penetration of IoT, and the rise of emerging scenarios such as the low-altitude economy and connected vehicles are jointly outlining the subsequent growth profile of the Wi-Fi chip industry.
The explosion of edge AI poses higher requirements for wireless connectivity: higher data transmission rates, lower latency, and stronger multi-device concurrent capabilities. Beken Corporation's Edge AI chips have entered the stage of scaled shipment; Espressif Systems is advancing the R&D of Wi-Fi 7 and 12nm RISC-V edge AI chips; Khonmi Communication proposes that with the increase in Wi-Fi 7 penetration and the popularization of Wi-Fi 8 technical products, its FEM products are expected to upgrade from 'connectivity support' to 'AI experience empowerment.' The integration of AI and Wi-Fi will continuously drive chip upgrades from the demand side.
Meanwhile, the IoT industry is transitioning from the connectivity-driven stage to the function-driven development stage. According to TSR's forecast, the shipment volume of the global wireless connectivity chip market will exceed 15 billion units per year by 2032. The penetration of diverse scenarios such as smart homes, industrial automation, energy management, and smart agriculture will continue to release the demand for Wi-Fi chips. Taixin Semiconductor's mass production of the world's first Wi-Fi HaLow chip, with an estimated annual output value of over 500 million RMB, is precisely a microcosm of the long-tail demand in IoT.
The opening of new tracks is equally worthy of attention. The low-altitude economy is a typical representative. According to data from CCID Consulting, the domestic low-altitude economy market size is expected to break through 850 billion RMB in 2025 and is expected to enter the trillion-level in 2026, among which the market for drone-dedicated RF chips has a compound annual growth rate of 20% to 30%. The drone RF front-end chips launched by Khonmi Communication for the low-altitude economy have been docked with leading customers and obtained batch orders. The scaled demand for dedicated wireless communication chips in connected vehicles is also becoming an important breakthrough for driving market increments. The rise of these new tracks will provide differentiated growth space for Wi-Fi chip manufacturers.
Of course, challenges cannot be ignored either. In the domestic Wi-Fi 6 FEM market, prices have been driven down to the point where there is almost no profit left. The industry competition landscape is becoming increasingly dense, with frequent product iterations and price games. With the rise in R&D costs and the increasing demand from customers for one-stop solutions, small and medium-sized manufacturers are likely to be eliminated in the Wi-Fi 8 era. Meanwhile, the potential shift in the tariff framework has triggered the risk of global supply chain restructuring. How to maintain competitiveness in technological iteration and seize the initiative in global changes is a question that every domestic Wi-Fi chip manufacturer must answer.
Looking back, the collective explosion of domestic Wi-Fi chips in this round does not contain too many unexpected elements. R&D investments will eventually be realized, and technological accumulation will eventually be released; this is the law of industrial development. The door to Wi-Fi 8 is slowly opening, and the era of AI and the Internet of Everything is accelerating. The track for Wi-Fi chips is wide and long enough; winning it requires more than just luck. The story of domestic Wi-Fi chips has just entered its most wonderful chapter.