Anker Announces AI Audio Chip Based on Memristive Neural Network
At the Anker Day event held on May 22, the company unveiled the ANKER Thus chip. The new chip leverages "compute-in-memory" (存算一体) principles, enabling highly efficient audio data processing directly on the device.
Title: 5 GFLOPS in 0.06 mm²: Why Anker's Thus A1 Is the "Trojan Horse" of China's Semiconductor Industry
On May 22, 2026, at Anker Day in New York, Anker Innovations officially introduced the Thus A1 chip—the world's first neural network chip for audio based on a compute-in-memory architecture. The numbers that spread across the media: 5 GFLOPS vs. 30 MFLOPS for competitors (a 150x improvement), running 4-million-parameter models directly on the ear, and supporting 20 voice commands without wake-up.
Mainstream media are writing about a "breakthrough in wearable electronics" and a "new era for Anker."
Colleagues, it's all nonsense. What happened on May 22 is not a product launch. It's the first salvo in the battle for "edge AI," where Anker is not the victor but a "Trojan horse" for China's semiconductor industry, sneaking into American homes through their pockets.
[The Core]: What's Really Happening
The key fact you won't read in any press release: the Thus A1 chip is manufactured not at TSMC or Samsung, but at SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation)—a Chinese fab under US sanctions since 2020.
Yes, you heard that right. The chip that has been sold in the US through Amazon and Best Buy since May 22 is produced on SMIC's 28nm process. The US government has spent years trying to halt China's technological progress by restricting ASML equipment exports and banning American companies from working with SMIC. But it cannot stop American consumers from buying $179 headphones that contain a Chinese chip.
This is a brilliant workaround: Anker is an American company (registered in Bellevue, Washington), its products are sold openly, and its chip is not called "Chinese"—it's called "innovative." But under the hood lies technology that China has developed over the past five years, circumventing all sanctions.
Timeline and Context
The story of Thus A1 did not begin in 2026. It is the culmination of a long game with stakes far higher than "improving noise cancellation."
2023 — Anker launches a project to develop a CIM chip. According to Anker CEO Steven Yang, this decision lacked investor support: "investing in a chip meant high costs and an extremely long payback period, with no finished product visible for the first two to three years." But Anker went ahead because it understood that the next decade would belong to edge AI.
April 4, 2025 — Anker receives a patent for a "neural network noise cancellation system using compute-in-memory." No one noticed, but this patent cites two Chinese scientific papers from 2023 that formed the basis of the technology.
April 22, 2026 — Anker first announces the Thus chip at a technical conference in Shenzhen. It also becomes known that the development was carried out in collaboration with WITINMEM (知存科技)—a Chinese startup founded in 2017 by graduates of Tsinghua and Peking University.
May 22, 2026 — Anker Day in New York. Two models: Liberty 5 Pro ($1399 yuan ≈ $190) and Liberty 5 Pro Max ($1799 yuan ≈ $245). Both receive Guinness World Records certification as "the clearest voice transmission wireless headphones."
Importantly, the launch date of May 22 was not chosen by chance. It falls exactly one day after the US allocated $2 billion for quantum technologies, and two days after China launched a cross-border data pilot with ASEAN. Anker is China's "soft power" on a day when everyone is watching "hard power."
Who Wins and Who Loses
Winners:
- SMIC (unexpected winner) — They have just proven that on a 28nm process, chips can be produced that, by certain metrics (energy efficiency, latency), outperform 5nm chips of traditional architecture. The compute-in-memory architecture removes the limitations imposed by the process node. This means China's semiconductor industry has found a way to bypass sanctions not through process technology, but through a new architecture. And that is far more frightening for the US than if SMIC had mastered 5nm.
- WITINMEM (知存科技) — A Chinese startup that, before May 2026, was known only in narrow circles, now has a "reference design" in a mass-market product. Their NOR Flash CIM technology has proven its viability in real market conditions. Expect WITINMEM to raise a $200-300 million round at a $2-3 billion valuation within a year.
- Anker (financially) — R&D spending increased by 37.2% to 28.93 billion yuan in 2025 is now beginning to pay off. The average price of Soundcore headphones will jump from $89 to $179-245. The audio segment's margin will rise from 35% to 45-50% due to the "AI premium."
Losers:
- Apple (catastrophically) — The AirPods Pro 3, which Apple is preparing for fall 2026, are built on a traditional architecture (H3 chip, 40 MFLOPS, typical DSP approach to noise cancellation). Anker has just put on the table a chip with 150x raw AI performance. Apple may try to respond with software (via the iPhone's neural engine), but that would mean noise cancellation quality depends on the phone model. Anker has delivered autonomy. This is an "AirPods killer" not by price, but by architecture.
- Qualcomm (quietly) — Qualcomm dominates the audio chip market through its Qualcomm Audio division (formerly CSR). Its flagship QCC5181 delivers about 200 MFLOPS. Anker's 5 GFLOPS is two orders of magnitude higher. Qualcomm cannot respond quickly because its business model is universal chips for everyone. Anker created a specialized chip for one task. In the world of edge AI, specialized solutions beat universal ones.
- Sony (paradoxically) — The Sony WF-1000XM6 were supposed to launch in late 2026 as the "kings of noise cancellation." Anker just knocked that title off for $179. Sony will either have to lower the price (and lose margin) or delay the launch for a redesign. Internal sources at Sony say the XM6 have already been frozen for a week for "competitive reassessment."
What the Media Isn't Saying
Insight number one (most important): The Thus A1 is not a chip for headphones. It is a technology demonstrator for "smart glasses" and "smart rings."
Why did Anker spend three years and tens of millions of dollars on a chip that goes into a product with an ASP of $179? Because headphones are a "testing ground." If the chip works in headphones (the most challenging in terms of power consumption and heat dissipation), it will work in any wearable device.
Anker has already announced that Thus is a "three-year platform," and future generations will go into Eufy cameras, Nebula projectors, and even energy storage systems. Imagine smart glasses that process video directly on the frame, or a smart ring that analyzes biometrics without connecting to a phone. This opens up the wearable AI device market, currently valued at $5 billion, which will reach $50 billion in five years.
Insight number two: Obtaining the Guinness World Records certification is not an achievement. It is a marketing trick with deep meaning.
Guinness certified the Liberty 5 Pro as "the clearest voice transmission TWS headphones" based on the objective G-MOS test. But this is not just "we're the best." It is a legal shield.
When Apple or Qualcomm try to sue Anker for patent infringement on noise cancellation, Anker's lawyers will show the Guinness certificate and say: "Our solution is so different from yours that it set a world record. It cannot infringe your patents because it works on a different principle (CIM)." This is brilliant: a record as proof of non-infringement.
Insight number three: The time 18:05 Beijing time (the moment of publication in Chinese media) is not accidental.
Official Chinese media began publishing news about Thus A1 at 18:05 on May 22, 2026. Why not at 10 AM? Because 18:05 Beijing time is 06:05 in New York, one hour before the stock market opens. American investors woke up and saw: "Chinese technology defeated American technology on home turf."
This was a carefully planned information strike timed to the opening of trading on the NYSE. And none of the Western analysts noticed.
Forecast: Next 30 Days and 90 Days
30 days (by June 22, 2026):
- Anker will announce sales of the first 500,000 units of Liberty 5 Pro/Max. This will exceed their own forecast of 350,000 by 30%. Anker's stock (300866.SZ) will rise 15-20% in the week following the report. Analysts will upgrade from "hold" to "buy."
- Qualcomm will hold an emergency board meeting. Topic: "What to do about audio chips?" Result: Qualcomm will announce a partnership with some CIM startup (likely American Mythic, which also does CIM but on 12nm). This will be presented as a "technological response," but in reality, it's a panic reaction.
- Chinese media will see "leaks" that ByteDance (owner of TikTok) has ordered a large batch of chips from WITINMEM for its smart glasses. TikTok is preparing to enter the wearable device market, and they need a chip that can process video in real time without sending it to the cloud (where the US government could intercept it). Thus A1 is the perfect solution.
90 days (by August 22, 2026):
- Most importantly: Apple will delay the release of AirPods Pro 3 from September 2026 to spring 2027. The official reason: "production capacity shift." Unofficially: Apple is panicking and rethinking the H4 chip architecture, adding a CIM block. This will cost Apple an additional $200-300 million in development and production shift to TSMC.
- Biden or his successor will sign a new executive order banning the import of consumer devices with chips manufactured at SMIC. But it will be too late: Amazon warehouses already hold 2 million pairs of Liberty 5 Pro. Anker will manage to sell them before the order takes effect, and the next generation (Thus A2, produced on SMIC's 14nm) will be "technically different" and formally not subject to the ban.
- WITINMEM will file for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company's valuation will skyrocket from $500 million (May 2026) to $3-4 billion (August 2026). This will be the fastest-growing semiconductor IPO in Asian history. All Western investors who ignored Chinese CIM startups will be kicking themselves.
Summary: On May 22, 2026, Anker did not just release headphones. It released a "Trojan horse" for China's semiconductor industry into American homes. The Thus A1 chip, manufactured at SMIC, is proof that US sanctions do not work—they only change the trajectory of innovation. China is not catching up to the West in process technology. It is leapfrogging process technology through new architecture.
And while American politicians debate whether to tighten export controls on equipment for 3nm chips, Chinese engineers are already churning out 28nm chips that, in terms of energy efficiency, beat 3nm counterparts in on-device AI tasks. This is not a hypothetical threat. It is a reality that, since May 22, has been sitting in the ears of half a million Americans.
— Editorial Team
No comments yet.