Espressif Systems announced that its first wireless communication chip supporting Wi-Fi 6E has completed engineering sample testing and is scheduled for mass production in the second half of 2025. This marks a new breakthrough for Espressif in the field of high-performance wireless communication chips, officially entering the Wi-Fi 6E high-speed data communication and transparent transmission market, with plans to launch a series of products to meet diverse application needs.
Mass-Producing Wi-Fi 6E Chips: Stepping into a New Era of High-Speed Wireless Communication
This chip is equipped with Espressif’s self-developed dual-core 500 MHz RISC-V processor, supports 2×2 MU-MIMO and Beamforming, and covers the 2.4/5/6 GHz tri-band Wi-Fi 6/6E. Test data shows that the chip achieves a data throughput of 2.1 Gbps in the 5 GHz band with a 160 MHz bandwidth. It features high-speed interfaces such as PCIe, USB, and SDIO, flexibly adapting to various terminal forms. With excellent performance and cost-effectiveness, it is ideal for application scenarios requiring high-speed wireless communication. Relying on the core technology of this chip, Espressif will launch multiple product specifications focusing on the Wi-Fi 6E high-speed data communication and transparent transmission market, further expanding its product portfolio in smart terminals and gateways. In the future, users can expect to experience faster speeds, lower latency, and more stable connections brought by Wi-Fi 6E in more devices. While launching Wi-Fi 6E products, Espressif’s team has already initiated research and development (R&D) on the next-generation Wi-Fi 7 chips. Currently, the company’s technological gap with international top manufacturers in Wi-Fi generations is only one generation, demonstrating strong technical competitiveness. The new generation of products will further explore multi-link communication, ultra-high bandwidth, and low-latency features.
Is Wi-Fi 7 Heating Up Prematurely? Espressif Aims to Enter with Nearly 1.8 Billion Yuan in Fundraising
Espressif noted that compared to Wi-Fi 6 (the sixth generation of wireless networks), Wi-Fi 7 increases throughput by approximately threefold. More crucially, competitors like MediaTek have already established relatively mature layouts.
Overall, Espressif’s fundraising projects include the R&D and industrialization of Wi-Fi 7 router chips, R&D and industrialization of Wi-Fi 7 smart terminal chips, the construction of a Shanghai R&D center, and working capital supplementation, with two projects directly related to Wi-Fi 7.
However, the Wi-Fi 7 market is still in its early stages. Is it necessary to develop related products now? How will capacity be utilize in the future?
In response to exchanges’ inquiries, Espressif stated that each generation of Wi-Fi introduces new features—higher throughput, lower latency, and better user experience. Wi-Fi 7, the latest Wi-Fi protocol standard, is expected to support throughput of up to 30 Gbps, approximately three times that of Wi-Fi 6.
Beyond performance improvements, Espressif emphasized that major competitors like MediaTek have already made forward-looking industrial deployments in Wi-Fi 7 technology. This strategic layout will further narrow the gap between Espressif and its competitors.
However, Espressif also acknowledged that while the company has accumulated certain key modules and underlying technologies, it may face significant R&D challenges in the future. For example, Wi-Fi 7’s maximum channel width has been upgraded from 160 MHz to 320 MHz, requiring higher signal processing capabilities and more complex chip designs due to the broader bandwidth. Wi-Fi 7’s support for multi-link operation (MLO), which requires simultaneous transmission of multiple data streams, demands stronger chip coordination and processing capabilities. In AI chips, the design of functional modules within the SoC is highly complex, as integrating communication modules, processors, memory controllers, security units, AI computing power, and other subsystems into a single chip requires advanced system design capabilities.
Regarding market applications, Espressif stated that Wi-Fi 7 is currently mainly used in high-end devices. However, it is expected to become more widely adopted from 2026 to 2027 and will become the dominant Wi-Fi application by 2030. Espressif also revealed that its customers are downstream AIoT (artificial intelligence of things) application clients. For Wi-Fi 7 router chips, some strategic customers have router-related products, making commercialization and order conversion feasible.
As one of the few Chinese companies with self-developed core IP in Wi-Fi chips, Espressif continues to uphold technological self-reliance in its products, including self-developed Wi-Fi 6E protocol stacks and RISC-V architecture processors, further enhancing product customization capabilities, technical security, and industrial controllability.
Espressif will continue to deepen its presence in the wireless communication field, leveraging efficient and reliable chip products to promote the widespread application of Wi-Fi technology in IoT smart terminals and network communication devices, and collaborate with industry partners to welcome the new era of intelligent connectivity for all things.
