WISeKey starts manufacturing its IoT Semiconductors in China with the objective to ramp up its secure chip install base to 10 billion within the next 3 years

WISeKey starts manufacturing its IoT Semiconductors in China with the objective to ramp up its secure chip install base to 10 billion within the next 3 years, with a new Secure Microprocessor for IoT, Blockchain, AI and WISeCoin

• WISeKey will continue manufacturing its chips in other countries (Asia and Europe) but China will become the main manufacturing center for Asia
• Currently, WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion secure chips (since 2010) in virtually all IoT sectors – autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc.

 ZUG, Beijing Switzerland – June 1, 2018 –WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey” or the “Company”) (SIX: WIHN) (OTCQX: WIKYY), a leading cybersecurity and IoT company, today announced that is manufacturing its IoT semiconductors in China, having as a goal the ramp up of its secure chip install base to 10 billion within the next 3 years, with a new Secure Microprocessor for IoT, Blockchain, AI and WISeCoin.

WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion secure chips (since 2010) in virtually all IoT sectors – autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc. VaultIC407 features an outstandingly rich set of Security Protocols and Security Functions tailored to IoT applications. While WISeKey will continue manufacturing chips in other countries in Asia and Europe, its new plant in China will become the main manufacturing center for Asia.

Trusted Semiconductors are the building blocks of the IoT, found in everything from autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc. Although China has mastered the art of assembling products with semiconductors produced elsewhere (the iPhone is the most famous example), the aspiration is for technology companies in China to move from being mere assemblers to manufacturers of semiconductors, therefore there is huge opportunity for WISeKey to become one of the first global companies to establish its semiconductors manufacturing facility in mainland China.

This is a great revenue opportunity for WISeKey as China is currently the world’s largest chip market, but it manufactures only 16 percent of the semiconductors it uses domestically. Currently, China imports about $200 billion worth of chips annually — a value exceeding its oil imports. To cultivate a domestic industry, the government of China has slashed taxes for chip makers and plans to invest as much as $32 billion to become a world leader in design and manufacturing.

“Our plan is to take advantage of this huge market opportunity to ramp up our production from the current 1.2 billion chips to 10 billion chips in the next 3 years,” said Carlos Moreira, CEO and Founder of WISeKey.

In April 2018, WISeKey announced that in cooperation with China Bridge Capital International, a division of China Bridge Capital (CBC) a leading investor in global disruptive technology companies, will establish a Joint Venture – WISeKey China – with the goal of becoming one of the leading providers of cybersecurity, Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain services for the growing Chinese market. The over-arching objective of the new company is to establish a market foothold with credible in-country leaders to maximize revenue in the near-term and realize reputable category position in the sectors of: retail, financial transaction, automotive, smart cities, consumer products, healthcare, smart card, industrial, transportation, and IT infrastructure, in the long-term.

China Bridge Capital, led by internet innovator Edward Qiang Zeng, is the premier alternative financial service provider for technology companies in strategic emerging industries across China, bringing investors and partners together for dynamic growth. CBC has recently co-founded the $1.4 billion “Next Generation Disruptive Industrial Fund” in cooperation with the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Chongqing Municipal Government to invest in disruptive technologies that originate from the US and/or Europe.

Switzerland, the home country of WISeKey, also enjoys a pioneering relationship with China, being one of the first western countries that recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1950 – just one year after its creation. Switzerland was also early to recognize China as a market economy in 2007. In 2013, Switzerland became the first continental European country to sign a free-trade agreement with Beijing and, in 2016, Switzerland was one of the first countries in Europe to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

To take advantage of these opportunities in China, WISeKey made the strategic decision to localize the production of VAULTIC, a Vault in a secure Integrated Circuit. Combined with the Application Microcontroller in the IoT Edge Device, VaultIC407 brings premium security level. WISeKey Secure Elements provide secure storage and usage of sensitive assets. The firmware running on the WISeKey chips, is built with unique features able to secure storage, cryptographic calculations and digital signatures, and is specifically designed to execute sensitive calculations, without leaking information such as power consumption patterns or electromagnetic emissions to the outside world. The data is stored deep down within the protected memory of the chips, which are designed with unique capabilities not to allow other software to run on them and are equipped with various hardware sensors and protection mechanisms making them resistant to hardware attacks. Of note, would these WISeKey Secure Elements have been used for sensitive data storage for the Application Microcontrollers affected by the recent ‘Meltdown’ and ‘Spectre’ attacks, they would have never been successful.

For more than twenty years, WISeKey has been providing a range of Common Criteria certified tamper resistant microprocessors that can be implemented on IoT devices to provide secure storage and usage of sensitive assets, and to uniquely identify, authenticate and protect devices in the field. These assets can be managed through a Webtrust certified Public Key Infrastructure on premises or as an operated service. 

WISeKey Semiconductors has been busy developing the latest VaultIC407 Secure Microprocessor enabling the new secure chip to be deployed in all business areas.  WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion VaultIC chips in virtually all IoT sectors (smartcards, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc.). 

WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as VaultIC semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.  Imagine an intelligent car with a system processing authenticated data for each of the vehicle’s components, being able to detect if/when various parts will require service and to digitally sign all the logs required to prove that service was provided. This platform can be used in multiple industrial applications, allowing for optimized productivity across industries through predictive maintenance on equipment and machinery, creating truly smart homes with connected appliances, and providing critical communication between devices including self-driving cars and smart homes. The possibilities that IoT brings to the table are endless. WISeKey’s technology creates a platform that helps connected devices to become intelligent devices that can learn from attacks, defend themselves, and transfer this intelligence to other devices in the network.

VaultIC407 has been designed to be integrated in large scale IOT projects including security dedicated components (Public Key Infrastructure and Entity Management) that WISeKey can provide. WISeKeyIoT is the name of this end-to-end security solution.

IoT-enabled services and products will generate vast amount of data which when well-analyzed, are very valuable to government organizations, product manufactures, corporations and end-users. This revenue model relies on data trust and on IoT edge devices control.

Users can take advantage of this unique solution in the market by remotely being able to: uniquely identify and control an IOT Edge Device (activation/deactivation/revocation), securely provision (point to point secure update) of the IOT Edge Device credentials and secure messages in motion between Edge Devices and Business Applications.

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (SIX: WIHN) (OTCQX: WIKYY) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying via a Virtual Platform large scale digital identity ecosystems. WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) and IoT Microchips provide secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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