Shanghai Police Arrest 14 Suspects in Chip Technology Trade Secret Infringement Case Involving Huawei Hi1152 V100

According to multiple media reports, Shanghai police, aided by Jiangsu police, recently arrested 14 suspects in a "chip technology trade secret infringement" case, including four primary suspects such as former senior executives of the implicated chip design company, who were detained for alleged trade secret violations while the remaining ten were released on bail.

Although the police did not disclose the company name, it is widely recognized as the former Zunpai Communications case that previously infringed Huawei HiSilicon technology. The evidence shown includes images of the infringing chip and the rights‑holder chip.

The rights‑holder chip is Huawei HiSilicon's Hi1152 V100, a wireless communication chip integrating baseband and RF with dual‑band 2.4 GHz/5 GHz capabilities.

Technical analysis found that 40 technical points of the infringing chip matched the rights‑holder's trade secrets with over 90% similarity, constituting substantial equivalence. Zunpai Communications was confirmed to have stolen HiSilicon technology, and its main responsible person is currently unreachable while its servers have been seized.

The rights holder is Shanghai HiSilicon Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly‑owned subsidiary of Huawei. Huawei's wireless/Wi‑Fi chips are all developed by Shanghai HiSilicon. Zunpai Communications' founders and actual controllers own multiple companies, and the infringement team operated with anti‑investigation awareness, distributing design, manufacturing, and testing across different firms.

Four months earlier, on August 23, Shanghai HiSilicon applied to a court to freeze RMB 95 million of Zunpai Communications' bank deposits or seize equivalent assets, which the court approved. The investigation revealed that the founders and senior executives, previously senior staff at the rights‑holder, left to establish the chip design company and recruited many former HiSilicon engineers with high salaries and equity incentives.

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court's non‑litigation preservation ruling dated July 14, 2023, ordered the freezing of RMB 95 million in bank deposits of Zunpai Communications and its subsidiaries, or the seizure of equivalent assets, with specific time limits for each type of preservation.

Zunpai Communications (Nanjing) Co., Ltd., founded in March 2021, focuses on Wi‑Fi chips, primarily Wi‑Fi 6 chips for routers, gateways, mobile devices, tablets, and TVs. Despite its short history, it secured nearly RMB 100 million in angel financing within two months and later raised several hundred million RMB in a Pre‑A round from notable investors.

The company's founder and CEO, Zhang Kun, holds a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering from Peking University and a master's from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with prior roles at Qualcomm and Huawei HiSilicon. Director Zhou Yun is also a senior engineer formerly at HiSilicon.

According to Zhang, developing router AP chips requires expertise across software, digital, baseband, RF, and analog domains, and the transition from Wi‑Fi 5 to Wi‑Fi 6 presents unprecedented challenges, making the competition among domestic AP chip manufacturers intense.

Zhang advises semiconductor professionals to be prepared for long‑term dedication, warning against the pursuit of quick profits and emphasizing skill development to achieve independence from foreign competitors.

The article concludes with a reminder that while the case concerns domestic IP infringement, concerns remain about whether core technologies might be transferred abroad, raising national security issues.