The explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) technology is not only\nbenefiting US chip giants like Nvidia. China, which is in fierce\ncompetition with the US in the AI sector, is also vigorously producing\ninnovations to capture opportunities.<\/p>\n
One such example is Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology, a Chinese\nproducer of laser chips for optical communications. Yuanjie has emerged\nas one of the \u2018darlings\u2019 benefiting from the AI boom on China\u2019s stock\nexchanges.<\/p>\n
Its shares have increased nearly ninefold over the past year, in line\nwith the company\u2019s efforts to list on the Hong Kong exchange.<\/p>\n
This Shaanxi-based integrated device manufacturer closed trading last\nFriday (27\/3) at 1,100 yuan per share. Yuanjie now ranks second in share\nprice among companies listed on China\u2019s exchanges.<\/p>\n
Yuanjie trails only Kweichow Moutai, which stands at 1,416 yuan.\nYuanjie\u2019s market capitalisation reaches approximately 94.6 billion yuan,\nequivalent to Rp233 trillion, quoted from the South China Morning Post\non Monday (30\/3\/2026).<\/p>\n
This achievement marks Yuanjie as the second company on the Shanghai\nSTAR Market, focused on technology, to break the 1,000 yuan threshold,\nfollowing AI chip maker Cambricon.<\/p>\n
Yuanjie was founded in 2013 by Zhang Xingang, a Tsinghua University\ngraduate who later earned master\u2019s and doctoral degrees from the\nUniversity of Southern California. Yuanjie listed on the Shanghai STAR\nMarket in 2022.<\/p>\n
Zhang previously worked at Luminent and Source Photonics before\nfounding his own company. Yuanjie\u2019s core products are laser chips, the\noptical core of high-speed data transmission, including continuous-wave\nlasers, electro-absorption modulated lasers (EML), and distributed\nfeedback lasers.<\/p>\n
All serve AI data centres, 5G infrastructure, and fibre optic access\nnetworks, powering transceiver modules. Laser chips convert electrical\nsignals into light through fibre optic cables.<\/p>\n
Based on external sales revenue throughout 2025, Yuanjie ranks sixth\nas the world\u2019s largest global laser chip provider.<\/p>\n
Yuanjie is also the world\u2019s second-largest supplier of laser chips\nspecifically for high-speed optical interconnect products based on\nsilicon photonics, according to data from China Insights Consultancy\ncited in the company\u2019s Hong Kong stock exchange filing.<\/p>\n
Like Nvidia in the US, Yuanjie has quickly capitalised on AI\ninfrastructure development. The company\u2019s full-year revenue for 2025,\nreleased last week, surged 138.5% to 601.4 million yuan.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, net profit attributable to shareholders reached 191\nmillion yuan. This marks a sharp turnaround from a loss of 6.1 million\nyuan the previous year.<\/p>\n
This change was largely driven by its data centre business. Overall\ngross margin rose 32.3 percentage points to 55.7% in 2025, with data\ncentre products achieving a gross margin of 71.3%.<\/p>\n
For the first time, data centre revenue surpassed the company\u2019s\nlegacy telecommunications business, contributing 65.4% of total revenue\nat 393.3 million yuan. This represents a 719% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n
Yuanjie\u2019s resurgence reflects a broader structural shift in AI\ninfrastructure, namely the transition from copper to optical\ninterconnects. Optical chips, which transmit data using light rather\nthan electrical signals through copper cables, are emerging as critical\ninfrastructure for AI data centres struggling to keep up with bandwidth\nand heat demands from massive processor clusters.<\/p>\n
Recognised by Nvidia<\/p>\n
Indeed, Nvidia has validated this trend. At the company\u2019s flagship\nGTC developer conference this March, founder and CEO Jensen Huang stated\nthat the next-generation Feynman architecture, expected in 2028, will\nincorporate optical interconnects.<\/p>\n
Nvidia also announced investments of US$2 billion each in photonics\nspecialists Lumentum and Coherent, along with multi-billion-dollar\npurchase commitments and priority access to future production\ncapacity.<\/p>\n
However, Yuanjie still lags behind global leaders in production\ncapacity and products like 200G EML, the next-generation laser chip\nstandard already in mass production at Lumentum.<\/p>\n
As the transition accelerates, several Chinese optical communications\ncompanies, including Eoptolink, Zhongji Innolight, and TFC\nCommunication, have attracted growing investor attention.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/china-makes-a-new-splash-its-technology-recognised-by-america-1774882345", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }