Hong Kong serves as a springboard for overseas expansion, allowing the world to experience Chinese technology.

Juxin Microelectronics: Breaking the Foreign Monopoly in the 3D Vision Field

Mainland semiconductor companies are accelerating their international expansion through Hong Kong's capital market. In the second half of 2025, Juxin Microelectronics, a smart sensing chip company, officially submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to use the funds raised to focus on R&D in core areas such as smart sensing, machine vision, and imaging technology, and to expand its global sales and service network. As the Hong Kong SAR government's dedicated investment promotion agency, InvestHK continues to provide support to innovative technology companies like Juxin Microelectronics, including matchmaking and professional service introductions, helping them leverage Hong Kong as an international financial center to connect with global capital and markets. Kong Fanxiao, co-founder of Juxin Microelectronics, said in an interview with Ta Kung Pao that against the backdrop of rapid development in artificial intelligence and the low-altitude economy, mainland companies are making continuous breakthroughs in key technology areas such as 3D ToF and smart audio amplifiers, and applications such as facial recognition, autonomous driving, and AR/VR are expanding. "We look forward to achieving more international expansion through the Hong Kong platform and letting the world experience Chinese technology."

Kong Fanxiao, co-founder of Juxin Microelectronics, said he looks forward to achieving more international expansion through the Hong Kong platform and letting the world experience Chinese technology.

In early 2016, a startup team comprised of scholars who had returned from Europe founded Juxin Microelectronics in Wuhan. At that time, the mainland semiconductor industry had not yet experienced its current boom, yet this team chose the extremely challenging 3D ToF (Time of Flight) image sensor chip track. 3D ToF technology may sound abstract, but it is already deeply integrated into daily life. With the advent of the artificial intelligence wave, the importance of 3D vision is becoming increasingly prominent. Emerging applications such as robot obstacle avoidance, scene modeling, dexterous hand grasping, and autonomous driving LiDAR are growing rapidly.

After a decade of dedicated effort, this company has now joined the ranks of the world's leading 3D vision chip manufacturers and is poised for a new wave of growth in the era of artificial intelligence and robotics. Breaking foreign technological monopolies in the development of multiple chips and continuously expanding their application areas, Kong Fanxiao believes that mainland semiconductor companies are constantly achieving independent innovation and global exploration in the field of high-end sensors.

Continuing to upgrade product lines, increasing to 11.

In the early stages of the startup, the team faced multiple challenges, including technological breakthroughs and supply chain construction. "Doing R&D is definitely very tough. At that time, there weren't many companies in the international 3D ToF sensor market, so there were few case studies to learn from. R&D challenges were constant, but thanks to the extensive experience many team members had previously gained in 3D depth technology research, we were able to refine our products and eventually launch a mature product." In 2020, Juxin Microelectronics released its first ToF sensor chip and has continued to upgrade its products since then. To date, Juxin Microelectronics has established 11 product lines, including 3D ToF image sensors, optical sensors, smart audio amplifiers, and OIS driver chips, covering 80% of the world's mainstream smart mobile terminal manufacturers.

According to data from Frost & Sullivan, in the field of optical sensors, Juxin Microelectronics shipped 283 million units in 2024, accounting for 11.2% of the global market share, ranking third globally and first in China. In the field of machine vision, Juxin Microelectronics shipped millions of 3D iToF image sensors in 2024, ranking among the top globally. Kong Fanxiao stated, "Our independently designed new generation of iToF products is one-third smaller than international competitors, consumes only half the power, and has superior accuracy; our dToF products boast industry-leading resolution and an outdoor detection distance of tens of meters, overcoming the traditional high power consumption bottleneck. Moreover, relying on a fully domestic supply chain, the cost is only a fraction of that of international competitors. In addition, our independently developed 5µm VGA-level back-illuminated high-resolution ToF time-of-flight sensor chip has been successfully taped out and has received batch orders. Linear motor drive chips and optical sensing chips have also achieved mass production. These examples fully demonstrate that China's scientific and technological research and development is continuously advancing."

As mainland semiconductor companies accelerate their "going global" strategy, Hong Kong's role as a bridge connecting the mainland and the world is becoming increasingly prominent. In this process, InvestHK, as the Hong Kong SAR government's dedicated investment promotion agency, continues to provide innovation and technology companies with services such as policy consultation, international business development, and settlement support, assisting them in leveraging Hong Kong to expand into global markets. Kong Fanxiao stated that as companies advance their internationalization strategy, they look forward to deeper cooperation with InvestHK in the future. He pointed out that companies first hope to utilize InvestHK's platform resources to strengthen international market promotion, more systematically showcase their technological strength and business layout to global customers, partners, and investment institutions, and enhance international market awareness and influence.

Plans to establish global headquarters in Hong Kong to advance mergers and acquisitions

Regarding the establishment of its international headquarters, Kong Fanxiao revealed that the company is considering Hong Kong as a key foothold for its global or international headquarters, hoping to obtain more professional guidance and resource connections in areas such as financial structuring, tax planning, legal compliance, supply chain management, and intellectual property strategy. He believes that Hong Kong's mature financial and legal system will help the company establish an operational structure that meets international standards and enhance its global competitiveness. Furthermore, as the company may pursue overseas investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the future, it also expects support from InvestHK and the Hong Kong SAR government in areas such as policy and regulatory interpretation, cross-border regulatory environment, and international market risk assessment, to help the company more steadily carry out its globalization strategy.

"Our international headquarters is based in Hong Kong, with a global reach, and is backed by mainland China," said Kong Fanxiao. He added that against the backdrop of an increasingly complex global economic and trade environment, Hong Kong's advantages as an international financial center and institutional open platform are particularly prominent. "How to better utilize Hong Kong as an international platform for business development is a crucial part of corporate globalization, and we look forward to more opportunities for exchange and cooperation with InvestHK and the Hong Kong SAR government in the future."

The 3D iToF chip developed by Juxin Microelectronics is about the size of a pencil tip. (Image provided by interviewee)

Partnering with Hong Kong universities to provide internships for talent development

The founding team of Juxin Microelectronics initially consisted of several Chinese scientists who had long studied and worked in Europe. Most members graduated from prestigious universities in the field of 3D vision, such as Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and KU Leuven in Belgium. These universities have deep expertise in Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology research and are considered important schools of thought in global 3D vision technology. After completing their doctoral research at these universities and gaining years of experience in European chip companies, the team members returned to China with their technology and dreams.

"Our technological DNA has been international from the very beginning," said Kong Fanxiao, co-founder of Juxin Microelectronics. Regarding talent acquisition, the company not only has engineers who have returned from overseas but also actively collaborates with Hong Kong universities. In recent years, Juxin Microelectronics has been planning to establish industry-academia-research cooperation mechanisms with several Hong Kong universities, providing students with internship and joint training opportunities, and gradually building a localized talent pool. Speaking about talent development and attraction, the company believes that talent development is the core of its business. "We are also exploring the possibility of attracting global semiconductor talent, such as how to leverage the geographical advantages of Hong Kong and Shenzhen to create R&D and employment platforms in both places, attracting high-end talent from Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea to work in Hong Kong or the mainland. We also hope to utilize Hong Kong's talent policies, such as the 'Highly Skilled Migrant Admission Scheme' and 'Excellent Migrant Admission Scheme,' to solve issues related to visas, taxation, and children's education for talent. We also hope that the Hong Kong SAR government can introduce specific talent support policies for the semiconductor industry to help companies attract global talent."

An international environment is conducive to attracting overseas engineers

The company also values ​​Hong Kong's unique advantages in attracting international talent. For high-end engineers from Europe, America, Japan, and other regions, Hong Kong offers a more international living environment and facilitates integration into cross-cultural teams. The company hopes to leverage Hong Kong's talent and skilled worker policies, as well as its more comprehensive visa, tax, and education support packages, to attract more global semiconductor talent to the city.

"In the future, we hope to form a collaborative pattern among the three regions: Europe for original technological innovation, the mainland for engineering implementation, and Hong Kong as an international window." The team believes that this layout will not only help attract global talent, but also help provide services to international clients.

Source: Taosen Going Global