The story of domestic substitution has been told for years, but as AI smartphones, direct-to-satellite connectivity, and the low-altitude economy scale up simultaneously, the competitive logic of RF chips is being rewritten.
This article attempts to step out of the "recommendation logic" and, from an industry observation perspective, dissect the layout and realization pace of OnMicro, a platform-based company.
| From "Substituting Existing Stock" to "Creating Incremental Growth"
In the past few years, discussions on the domestic substitution of RF were mostly confined to the context of mobile cellular networks. However, over the last two years, the sources of incremental growth in the industry have clearly spilled over—the rapid iteration of AI smartphones and foldable screens has driven up the RF value per device; meanwhile, the explosion of emerging scenarios such as connected vehicles, low-altitude drones, and direct-to-satellite mobile connectivity has expanded the demand radius of RF chips to the full-spectrum range of "ground-air-space."
Looking at the overall market, this track is still expanding. According to Yole's estimates, the global RF chip market will grow from USD 53.6 billion in 2025 to USD 69.7 billion in 2030, a net increase of nearly USD 16 billion over five years, with mobile satellite communications, automotive electronics, and AIoT listed as core growth engines.
The supply landscape has long been imbalanced.
The high-end global RF market is dominated by overseas giants such as Broadcom, Skyworks, Qorvo, Qualcomm, and Murata, which collectively hold nearly 70% of the market share; the overall market share of domestic manufacturers is less than 20%, and the localization rate of high-end 5G integrated modules is even less than 10%. Benchmarking against the operational scale of overseas leaders like Skyworks and Qorvo, the industry generally estimates that there is a potential domestic substitution space of hundreds of billions of CNY in the domestic RF sector.
Another easily overlooked incremental growth lies in RF SoCs.
Data from PW Consulting shows that the global Bluetooth SoC market size was about USD 6.15 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach USD 11.14 billion by 2032, with BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) as the mainstream form. Overseas companies such as Texas Instruments, Nordic, and Silicon Labs have already validated the scale of this track, while the rapid growth in segmented demands for electronic shelf labels, wearables, and industrial logistics is continuously raising the industry ceiling for RF SoCs.
In other words, the RF track is currently on a "dual-track" parallel path: one track is the domestic substitution of high-end RF front-ends, and the other is the natural expansion of RF SoCs alongside the proliferation of smart hardware.
| Integrating Three Business Segments into a Single Strand
The norm in the domestic RF industry is a single-point development model—RF front-ends focus on mobile cellular, Bluetooth SoCs target IoT, and analog manufacturers focus on power management. Technology, customers, and supply chains are fragmented from each other, resulting in weak anti-cyclical capabilities.
The differentiation of OnMicro lies in being one of the few chip design companies in China that truly deploys all three major segments simultaneously: RF front-end + RF SoC + other analog chips. Its logic is not simply to broaden the product line, but to enable the homologous sharing of underlying RF technologies, the reuse of end customers, and supply chain synergy, thereby mitigating the impact of fluctuations in a single track on overall operations.
Looking at the data for the first half of 2026, this strategy has entered a period of performance realization. During the period, RF SoC revenue reached CNY 226 million, a year-on-year increase of 49.77%, with the revenue share rising to 29.27%; if RF SoCs and analog chips are considered together, the year-on-year revenue growth reached 51.24%, and the growth momentum is quite concentrated in these two business segments.
A noteworthy structural signal is the stratification of gross profit margins: the gross profit margin of RF SoCs is about 29.49%, while the gross profit margin of "other products and services" (including analog chips) is as high as 63.42%—the analog chip business, with a gross profit level of over 60%, is far higher than the approximately 30% of RF SoCs. The company's overall gross profit margin has remained stable at over 20% in the past three years. Against the backdrop of obvious fluctuations in the consumer electronics cycle, the diversified business matrix has indeed played a hedging role. This is also the underlying reason why platform-based companies are more "stable" compared to single-point manufacturers.
In terms of scenario coverage, the company has initially drawn a "space-air-ground" map:
Ground end: Deeply bound to leading mobile phone brands such as Samsung, Honor, vivo, and Xiaomi, and extended to wearable IoT; Air end: Mobile satellite communications and commercial drone products have been implemented; Automotive end: 5G automotive-grade RF modules are advancing commercialization; Medical end: Multiple chips including Bluetooth Low Energy and analog chips have expanded applications.
Breaking free from the cyclical constraints of a single mobile phone track, the multi-product and multi-market matrix constitutes the company's current core business logic.
| From "Capable of Design" to "Capable of Mass Production"
Behind the platformization advantage is high-intensity R&D investment. The company has accumulated 371 valid intellectual property rights, with an R&D expense ratio of about 21%—this proportion is relatively high in the chip design industry, which also means that its moat is "built up" through continuous investment.
The real test lies in mass production. In the field of high-end RF modules, OnMicro took the lead in China in 2023 to achieve large-scale mass production and shipment of Phase7LE L-PAMiD modules to mainstream brand customers, breaking the monopoly of international manufacturers in this category; currently, the Phase 8L highly integrated modules have been commercially used in batches in flagship models of leading brands, ranking in the first echelon of domestic high-end RF modules.
Progress in several segmented scenarios is worth listing separately:
Mobile satellite communications: The tri-integrated satellite communication PA for Beidou, Tiantong, and China Satcom has achieved large-scale shipment and been introduced into mainstream flagship smartphones; Automotive electronics: The 5G RF front-end series products have passed the AEC-Q100 Grade 2 automotive certification, can work stably in a wide temperature environment of -40℃ to 105℃, are adapted to scenarios such as T-Box and V2X, and have secured design wins from multiple OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers; Low-altitude economy: RF switches, image transmission FEMs, and LNAs have been introduced to leading drone customers.
In response to the trends of 6G space-air-ground integration, integrated sensing and communication, and large uplink bandwidth, the company has focused on the preliminary research of low-voltage GaN power amplifier technology, reserving next-generation high-power and high-efficiency RF solutions. Relying on the engineering experience accumulated from 5G modules, mobile satellite communications, and automotive-grade verification, it lays the technical foundation for future domestic breakthroughs in 6G terminal RF.
| Platformization is a Moat, and Also an Endurance Race
Piecing together the above information, the story of OnMicro can be summarized in one sentence: using full-stack platform capabilities to capture the dual dividends of "domestic substitution + emerging scenarios."
From an industry logic perspective, this strategy has its rationality: the RF front-end holds the mobile phone base and enjoys the window of domestic substitution; RF SoCs and analog chips open up incremental growth in IoT, medical, and other fields; satellite communications, automotive grade, and the low-altitude economy provide high-prosperity second and third curves. Technological homology and customer reuse can theoretically amortize R&D and supply chain costs and enhance operational resilience.
However, as observers, there are also a few points that need to be viewed calmly:
First, the scale of high-gross-margin businesses still needs to be expanded. Although the gross profit margin of analog chips is high, that of RF SoCs is still less than 30%, and the overall gross profit margin is just over 20%. There is still a gap with the profitability levels of overseas leaders such as Skyworks and Qorvo, and the "cost reduction and efficiency increase" of platform synergy requires longer-term verification.
Second, the shadow of the consumer electronics cycle still remains. The proportion of mobile phone-related businesses is not low; during an industry downturn, platformization can hedge but will not be completely immune.
Third, forward-looking layouts are still in the early stages. Technologies such as 6G and GaN are still in the preliminary research and reserve stages, and there is uncertainty regarding their scale monetization.
Overall, against the backdrop of the deepening domestic substitution of high-end modules and the continuous incremental growth brought by mobile satellite communications, smart vehicles, the low-altitude economy, and IoT, OnMicro's trinity full-stack advantage of "RF front-end + RF SoC + other analog chips" makes it an industry sample worthy of continuous tracking. Whether technology, products, and customers can form a continuous resonance will determine whether it can truly run through this "space-air-ground" integrated path—this is both an opportunity and a long-distance race that requires patience.
This article is compiled based on public information, aiming to present an industry observation perspective, and does not constitute any investment advice.