- Cambricon’s sky -high market value reflects investor hoping for China’s domestic AI -hardware -o -ecosystem
- Quick revenue growth reveals the company’s financial reversal after years of loss
- Heavy dependence on a client and geopolitical restrictions raise doubts about its long -term sustainability
Cambricon Technologies has quickly become one of the more closely followed names in China’s semiconductor industry.
The Beijing-based AI chip designer has seen his share price skyrocket recently, at one point it earns a market value over RMB580 billion, approx. $ 81.2 billion.
It puts it in front of them as Mediatek and SMIC, which is very unusual for a company whose annual revenue still traces many of its international rivals.
Inevitable questions
Founded by brothers Chen Tanshi and Chen Yunji in 2016, Cambricon has focused on developing processors tailored to artificial intelligence.
Its Siyuan -Product Line has evolved rapidly, with Siyuan 590 -Chip is said to achieve approx. 80% of the performance of Nvidia’s A100 while it was built on a domestic 7nm process.
A follow -up model, Siyuan 690, is expected to be located against Nvidia’s H100.
The company’s financial reversal has certainly been quick. It generated RMB28.81 billion (about $ 4.03 billion) in revenue in the first half of 2025, which is more than 40 times the number the year before.
The profitability has also been improved by RMB1.038 billion (about $ 145 million) in net income registered during the same period and comes after years of loss.
For many investors, this has strengthened the view that Cambricon could form a central pillar in China’s efforts to build a domestic AI hardware ecosystem.
However, there are still questions about how durable this growth is, with many market surveys who wisely ask questions that remind me of what happened to Coreweave not so long ago.
Almost all Cambricon’s revenue comes from Sky chips used to educate large AI models, and most of its sales are tied to a handful of customers.
Its biggest client, not named, but assumed to be a large cloud provider, reportedly contributes most of the turnover. Any change in expenses from this customer and Cambricon’s earnings could tank.
Cambricon also faces geopolitical pressure. It was placed on Washington’s trading blank list in 2022, which limits access to overseas suppliers, forcing it to rely on local foundries as access to TMSC is also blocked.
Huawei and others push all AI hardware alternatives that can win market share for Cambricon’s damage.
Whether Cambricon can maintain momentum will depend on expanding its customer base, ensuring reliable production and navigating a highly disputed domestic market.
Via Trendforce
