Recently, Samsung and Google have successively released the latest smart phones with AI functions. Apple announced that AI functions will be added to iOS18. Domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also increasing their investment in AI. OPPO, Glory, Xiaomi and other mobile phone manufacturers have shown new mobile phones featuring AI functions. Meizu has directly announced its decision to "All in AI".

The fire of AI mobile phone also "burned" to the capital market. Recently, the "AI mobile phone concept stock" set off a wave of trading, Fulong Technology won five consecutive boards, Zhuoyi Technology three consecutive boards, and TD Optics closed with two consecutive boards. In addition, Goer shares, Chuanyin Holdings, Huiwei Technology, Guangfeng Technology, Wanderer, etc. also rose.

The 21st Century Business Herald reporter also noticed that investors have recently flocked to interactive platforms to ask about the company's layout in the AI mobile phone field, and more than 20 listed companies have responded. In addition, there are also a number of companies in the reception of institutions to investigate the clear response to AI mobile phone related business.

Despite the enthusiasm of the market, some institutions and industry analysts suggest that the current AI mobile phones need to be looked at calmly. "Judging from the current supply situation, what we provide for AI mobile phones is hardware, which is no different from the previous supply of other mobile phone products." A supplier of structural materials for AI mobile phones told a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald, "As for the increase, this data has not yet been counted."

　　Mobile phone manufacturers fully embrace AI

Judging from the landing of mobile phone manufacturers, Samsung has fired the first shot of AI mobile phone competition in 2024.

The Galaxy S24 series released in January focuses on an AI enablement, which can realize real-time translation, writing assistant, instant search, photo assistant and other AI functions on the end side. The latest news shows that the mobile phone exceeded 1 million units in just 28 days of South Korea sales, setting a new record for the fastest sales of S-series mobile phones.

At the end of last year, Google also integrated artificial intelligence directly into the latest mobile phone Pixel 8 series. The series is equipped with a self-developed Tensor G3 chip, and AI capabilities have been greatly improved. The Pixel 8 Pro is the first phone to run Google's AI model directly on the device.

For Apple, the company was recently blown up abandoning its car-building project and switching to a generative AI development project. The latest revelations show that Apple may recently release a special version of iOS17.4, bringing new AI features.

Domestic mobile phone manufacturers are no less. At the World Mobile Communications Conference held a few days ago, OPPO, Glory and Xiaomi all showed off new mobile phones featuring AI functions. Meizu even announced a strategic adjustment and decided to "All in AI" to stop the development of new projects of traditional "smart phones.

"2024 is the first year of AI mobile phone" has gradually become the industry consensus. This means that a change of the peak is coming. According to Counterpoint Research, an international market research organization, it is estimated that by the end of 2027, more than 0.5 billion mobile phones with built-in AIGC function will be shipped.

Although the potential of "AI mobile phone" excites the market, judging from the currently released AI mobile phones, AI functions are still only concentrated in image processing, voice recognition and other aspects, which is still far from the ideal AI mobile phone.

"At present, the key issues that AI mobile phones need to solve include improving AI processing power in offline environment, optimizing AI computing energy efficiency, extending battery life, and strengthening the transparency and ethics of AI decision-making." Hong Yong, a think tank expert at China's 50-person Forum on the Integration of Data and Reality, told reporters in 21st century business herald, "The ideal AI mobile phone should have all-round intelligent perception and autonomous service capabilities, and can seamlessly integrate into users' lives and interact with various intelligent devices."

Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, also believes that although AI technology has made significant progress in image and voice recognition, there may still be problems of misrecognition or low recognition efficiency in some complex scenarios. In addition, there are also challenges in privacy protection, power consumption and performance balance.

　　Industry Chain Opportunities in the First Year of AI Mobile Phone

However, the capital market has smelled the opportunity in this new competition, and the "AI mobile phone concept stock" was born.

In recent days, the upstream suppliers of the industrial chain that supply Samsung and Google AI mobile phones have been sought after by capital. Investors have flocked to various companies to inquire about the relevant supply relationship or the layout of AI mobile phones, and institutions have also begun to gather together to investigate.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 20 listed companies in related industrial chains, such as Siquan New Material, Chengmai Technology, TD Optics, Fulong Technology, Crystal Optoelectronics, Pengding Holdings, Jiang Bolong and so on, responded to AI mobile phone business on the interactive platform. Since January, Chuanyin Holdings, Lianchuang Electronics, Li Core Micro, Xi Wei, Si Quan New Material, Jiang Bolong and other institutions to obtain centralized research.

Among them, Anjie Technology replied to investors that the company's heat dissipation related products are used in smartphones. Gore shares also said that the company's precision acoustic components and other products can be used in smart phones and other hardware products.

In this series of concept stocks, the most popular target is undoubtedly Fu Rong Technology. The company previously said on the interactive platform that its Samsung S24 series of mobile phones, Google Pixel8 series of mobile phones and other products have AI functions. The company has been the main supplier of Samsung, Google and other end customers. As soon as this remark came out, Furong Technology won five trading limits in a row.

After that, Furong Technology made a risk warning, saying that at present, the company mainly provides aluminum mid-frame structural materials for the aforementioned mobile phones, and downstream brands mainly arrange production plans according to consumer demand, which does not rule out the risk of fluctuation in the company's annual orders for aluminum mid-frame structural materials.

In fact, on closer look, the so-called "AI mobile phone concept stocks" of these fires are just an extension of the traditional consumer electronics sector concept. There is still a question mark over how much AI phones will improve the performance of these companies.

The 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned from industry insiders, "AI mobile phones are more software and core components than traditional mobile phones. As far as structural components are concerned, there is not much difference between supplying AI mobile phones or traditional mobile phones."

Wanlian Securities Investment Advisor Qu Fang also told reporters, "At present, the AI phones launched by various mobile phone manufacturers are not much different from traditional phones, but add some AI features. From the recent performance of the secondary market concept stocks, it is still the basic manufacturers to benefit."

It is true that the emergence of AI mobile phones does bring the opportunity to enhance the traditional supply chain. Xi Di Micro's main power management chip and signal chain chip, the company in February to receive institutional research said that the operation of AI mobile phone large model of power management chip performance indicators will be further improved. Thermal management material supplier Siquan New Material also said in an institutional survey that AI applications require higher computing performance support and will put forward higher requirements for thermal solutions.

But the real breakthrough of AI mobile phones is obviously not here. "The future breakthrough of AI mobile phones must be the rise of manufacturers of core components such as computing power, algorithms, design, optical modules and OLEDs. And because China still has a large gap with the West in the above aspects, the performance of the short-term secondary market is more understood as conceptual hype, and there is no fundamental support." Qu Fang said.

Hong Yong also mentioned that many types of manufacturers are expected to benefit, but they are concentrated in more core industrial chain links: including but not limited to semiconductor manufacturers focusing on the research and development of AI chips and accelerators, component suppliers producing high-performance sensors and other key hardware, software service providers providing AI operating systems and core algorithms, enterprises dedicated to big data processing and cloud services, and application developers and service providers continuously expanding AI application boundaries.