On October 12, Jingneng Microelectronics issued a press release announcing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wolfspeed, specifically highlighting the signing location—the Geely Technology Building in Hangzhou.
This partnership is another key move by Jingneng Microelectronics following the completion of its share reform and a CNY 630 million Series C funding round. It also represents a crucial step in the implementation of Wolfspeed's Greater China strategy.
This is not a simple supply-and-demand agreement. We will dissect this partnership from the dimensions of cooperation models, strategic motivations of both parties, and the impact on the industrial landscape.
01. Behind the Three "Priorities": How Has the Cooperation Model Changed?
Regarding this partnership, both parties have shown great sincerity, with Jingneng Microelectronics employing three "priorities".
Jingneng Microelectronics' new-generation power module platform will prioritize the integration of Wolfspeed's silicon carbide (SiC) bare dies to complete the module platform adaptation, taking the lead in applications such as main inverters for NEVs (New Energy Vehicles).
Jingneng Microelectronics will give priority to Wolfspeed's solutions in various module projects, granting Wolfspeed commercial and supply priority for module delivery.
In return, Wolfspeed has committed to providing Jingneng Microelectronics with stable supply and reasonable commercial support.
Although this partnership is not an exclusive binding, it demonstrates Jingneng Microelectronics' posture of releasing cooperation dividends through project priority. Wolfspeed will offer corresponding preferences and supporting arrangements to Jingneng Microelectronics in commercial conditions such as pricing, delivery, and project support.
More critically, the partnership announcement highlighted this statement: "Both parties will jointly engage with the high-voltage electric platforms of leading domestic automakers, striving to secure vehicle design-win projects."
The traditional cooperation model involves SiC chip manufacturers selling bare dies and SiC module manufacturers handling packaging, making the relationship essentially transactional. However, this partnership breaks away from this model, evolving from a "transactional" to a "deeply bound" relationship.
The key to this "deep binding" is that Jingneng Microelectronics has begun to participate in chip specification definition. According to the announcement, Wolfspeed has committed to Jingneng Microelectronics to develop bare dies that meet or exceed its performance metrics and product requirements. This means Jingneng Microelectronics is no longer just passively receiving standard SiC solutions. Instead, based on the requirements of automakers' high-voltage platforms and its understanding of "packaging-chip" coupling, it proactively proposes customization requirements. The collaborative chip and module design model between the two parties is expected to further enhance the competitiveness of the final SiC module solutions, facilitating better engagement with design-win projects from more leading domestic automakers.
From the perspective of industry development trends, this partnership further reinforces the cooperation model of "international SiC bare dies + domestic SiC modules," making module manufacturers an efficient entry point for SiC chips to enter the automotive-grade supply chain.
Behind the deep binding of both parties lie their respective clear considerations and significance. For Jingneng Microelectronics, while expanding into the new AI data center (AIDC) market, it is also extending its automotive-grade business from Geely to more OEMs. Therefore, it needs a stable and customizable bare die supply to support this expansion.
For Wolfspeed, this partnership is a key lever for implementing its Greater China strategy. Companies such as Infineon, onsemi, STMicroelectronics, Bosch, and ROHM have long occupied the first tier of the domestic automotive-grade SiC market. By choosing to partner with Jingneng Microelectronics and relying on the module manufacturer's ready-made automaker channels and automotive-grade qualifications, Wolfspeed can quickly establish a cooperation chain targeting a broader range of OEMs.
For automakers, the partnership brings a brand-new alternative SiC chip solution, enriching the selection pool of power devices for high-voltage platforms. This helps enhance the diversity and resilience of the supply chain while providing greater bargaining power in device procurement.
02. Wolfspeed × Jingneng Microelectronics: Why Emphasize 8-Inch?
In this partnership, the core bargaining chip Wolfspeed brings to the table is its "mature 8-inch silicon carbide production line," a keyword also repeatedly mentioned by Jingneng Microelectronics.
For Wolfspeed, the value of its 8-inch layout in penetrating the Chinese market goes far beyond merely enlarging the wafer size. It is primarily reflected in two dimensions: cost competitiveness and product performance.
Cost dimension: Compared to 6-inch wafers, the cost per chip for 8-inch wafers can be reduced by approximately 30%. Therefore, the larger size prevents Wolfspeed from being too passive in price competition, adding competitive weight on the basis of performance and reliability. Meanwhile, cost reduction through 8-inch wafers is also a key cost lever for silicon carbide to move from high-end models down to mid-to-low-end passenger vehicles, and to expand from automotive applications to various industrial scenarios.
Performance dimension: The 8-inch production line features a higher level of automation and more advanced equipment platforms, which can reduce manual intervention and contamination issues, improve process uniformity and defect control capabilities, and deliver higher and more stable yields, along with stronger batch consistency and device reliability. It can meet the zero-defect standards for automotive applications, as well as the stringent requirements of AI data centers for parameter consistency and long-term reliability of large-volume devices. Compared to 6-inch production lines, it is more suitable for automotive and AI data center scenarios.
Looking beyond this partnership, the entry of Wolfspeed's 8-inch silicon carbide into the Chinese market may accelerate the pace of other manufacturers in advancing their 8-inch silicon carbide production lines.
03. The Reality of Domestic SiC in Vehicles: Jingneng Microelectronics' Choice Amid Supply Security and High-End Specifications
Jingneng Microelectronics' decision to "prioritize the integration of Wolfspeed bare dies" also reflects, to a certain extent, the practical contradictions faced by domestic silicon carbide chips in entering automotive applications.
However, Jingneng Microelectronics' choice to cooperate with the overseas manufacturer Wolfspeed should not be simply interpreted as a lack of confidence in domestic silicon carbide. In fact, they already have publicly announced cooperation information with domestic enterprises such as CRRC. It is believed that as domestic silicon carbide chips gradually mature, the domestic adoption in high-end scenarios is expected to expand step by step.
Jingneng Microelectronics made this supply chain choice primarily based on two considerations:
First, the need for supply security. The AI data center track continues to squeeze chip supply, coupled with a substantial increase in its own orders. Jingneng Microelectronics has set a delivery target of 600,000 sets of SiC MOSFET power modules for 2026. To support this capacity plan, the chip side must have stable and predictable batch delivery capabilities. Introducing chip suppliers with mature capacity and processes is key to ensuring the realization of the 600,000-set delivery target.
Second, the stringent requirements of high-end customers for chip specifications. Jingneng Microelectronics' long-term strategy is to use automotive-grade SiC modules as its foundation and reuse its automotive-grade reliability capabilities in high-end markets such as AI data centers. In such high-end scenarios, customers are more likely to recognize the existing advantages of mature chips in engineering implementation and performance margins.
04. Battlefield Shift: Building a Foundation with Automotive-Grade, Opening the Second Curve with AI Data Centers
Over the past few years, the narrative of the silicon carbide industry has been highly concentrated on main drive inverters for NEVs. However, the core change in 2026 is that the demand structure is shifting from "unipolar drive" to "multipolar resonance," among which AI data centers are the most watched growth pole.
This partnership is a typical validation of the shift in the demand structure of the silicon carbide industry.
Yu Daihui, President of Wolfspeed Greater China, stated, "The cooperation between the two parties will be implemented in the NEV field and will gradually expand to diverse application scenarios such as AI data centers, industrial power supplies, and energy storage."
Pan Yunbin, CEO of Jingneng Microelectronics, also expressed that this integrated cooperation can provide highly reliable and supply-chain-stable product solutions for scenarios such as AI data centers.
Jingneng Microelectronics' strategic mainline is very clear: using automotive-grade SiC modules as its foundation and cross-domain reusing its automotive-grade reliability capabilities in broader fields such as AI data centers. The value of cooperating with Wolfspeed in this regard lies in gaining access to a customizable source of high-end chip supply. On the one hand, it broadens the selection of silicon carbide chips; on the other hand, it allows Jingneng Microelectronics to propose differentiated chip performance requirements to Wolfspeed for different scenarios such as AI data centers and Solid State Transformers (SST), further enhancing the competitiveness of module products.
For Wolfspeed, the significance of this partnership lies not only in deepening its layout in China's NEV market but also in using Jingneng Microelectronics as a fulcrum to expand its footprint in China's AI data center market.
05. ASiC Summary
The incremental space for silicon carbide in the NEV field is still far from reaching its ceiling. We look forward to more cooperation in the industry in the future to spawn solutions that better meet the needs of the automotive market and accelerate the popularization of automotive-grade silicon carbide.
Moreover, such synergy is also conducive to expanding into the AI data center, photovoltaic, and energy storage tracks, continuously exploring opportunities in long-tail scenarios and cultivating new growth directions.
This article is published by [ASiC Third-Generation Semiconductor], focusing on industry observations of third-generation semiconductors (silicon carbide and gallium nitride).