China AI chip leader Cambricon sees record earnings boost from DeepSeek

Cambricon Technologies Corp. swung to a record profit in the first half, reflecting a wave of demand for Chinese chips after Beijing encouraged the use of homegrown technology in a post-DeepSeek AI boom.

The Chinese AI chip designer, which competes with Huawei Technologies Co. to provide accelerators for developing and hosting AI models, posted a 1.03 billion yuan profit ($144 million) versus a year-earlier loss of 533 million yuan. That’s off a roughly 44-fold surge in revenue to 2.9 billion yuan. Its shares climbed more than 8% in Shanghai.

The results underscore how startups and big tech firms like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are increasingly employing domestic alternatives to Nvidia Corp. as the pace of AI development intensifies. The Chinese

That’s lifted sentiment toward chipmakers amid rising geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. Cambricon—one of the largest listed AI chip designers—has doubled its market value to $80 billion this month alone. That’s after becoming China’s top performing stock of 2024, riding investor enthusiasm over government support for local tech. On Tuesday, the State Council reaffirmed support for AI adoption as well as the development of intelligent vehicles and robots—all of which require AI processors.

“Amid U.S. restrictions on China’s AI sector, government support for leading domestic firms is essential to drive growth and replace imported chips,” said Ma Cheng, chairman of Shenzhen Juze Investment Management Co. “Such protection is necessary, and Cambricon’s growth is far from temporary.”

Chip shares have led gains in the recent China stock market boom as investors grow more optimistic about the country’s AI prospects and DeepSeek’s latest model update, which it said was tailored to work with next-generation homegrown AI chips.

Despite the strong results, Cambricon acknowledged intensifying competition in the AI chip sector, with only Nvidia maintaining an absolute advantage in the market. That’s as the US government allows Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to resume sales of certain lower-end chips to the country.

To shore up its base, Cambricon said it’s expanded support for DeepSeek, Alibaba’s Qwen and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Hunyuan models. It also announced a 4 billion yuan private placement in July to fund its large-model chip platform.