The foreign trade import and export situation can intuitively reflect the comprehensive strength of the domestic manufacturing industry. According to the latest foreign trade statistics, in the first five months of 2026, my country’s total exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 7.58 trillion yuan, accounting for 63.6% of the country’s total export value. Mechanical and electrical products continue to become the core pillar of my country’s foreign trade growth. Benefiting from the global artificial intelligence computing power construction boom, the speed of computing power-related hardware products going overseas has accelerated significantly, becoming the biggest highlight of foreign trade exports.
The scale of overseas exports of high-end optical modules above 800G produced by a domestic high-tech enterprise in Wuhan has soared 100 times year-on-year this year. Such exaggerated growth data fully reflects the strong competitiveness of domestic high-tech hardware products in the global market.
Optical modules are an indispensable core component for the construction of AI computing power. Domestic products are sold overseas in large quantities, which not only drives the steady increase in foreign trade data, but also represents that my country’s high-end manufacturing technology strength has ranked among the first echelons in the world.
Many people don’t know what an optical module is. To put it simply and popularly, an optical module is a high-speed interface for data transmission in a data center.
The training of large artificial intelligence models and the operation of cloud computing servers require the transmission of massive amounts of data information every moment. Electrical signal transmission speed is slow and the loss is large. Optical modules can be used to convert electrical signals into optical signals, and optical fibers can be used to quickly complete data transmission.
Countries around the world are now building AI computing power centers on a large scale. The larger the scale of computing power, the greater the number of high-speed optical modules required. Optical modules of 800G and higher specifications are high-end products, mainly used in large-scale supercomputing centers. The technical threshold is very high. In the past few years, the high-end market was basically monopolized by overseas companies.
In the past two years, major technology companies around the world have been crazy about investing in artificial intelligence. Leading overseas companies have expanded their computing infrastructure on a large scale. The market demand for high-speed optical modules has experienced explosive growth. Domestic optical module manufacturers have seized the opportunity of this era and relied on their strong technical strength to win massive overseas orders.
Looking across the country, hardware products related to the artificial intelligence industry chain have contributed to more than half of my country’s incremental exports of mechanical and electrical products, becoming the most important source of power for foreign trade growth.
It is not an accident that domestic high-end parts can achieve hundreds of times of growth. Behind it is the solid foundation laid by the domestic high-tech industry for many years and continuous investment in research and development. It can be divided into three levels.
First, China has the world’s most complete supporting system for the entire optical communications industry chain.
The production of optical modules requires hundreds of components such as optical chips, casings, circuit boards, and optical components.
Although European and American countries have strong R&D capabilities, the manufacturing industry chain is fragmented, components need to be purchased from various countries around the world, the production cycle is long, and production costs remain high.
From upstream chip raw materials to downstream assembly and production of finished products, a complete industrial chain has been formed in China. All parts and components can be purchased domestically, and the supply chain is stable and efficient.
Enterprises can quickly respond to the order needs of overseas customers and quickly customize products according to the requirements of overseas manufacturers, with delivery efficiency far exceeding that of foreign counterparts. At the same time, a complete industrial chain can effectively reduce production costs. On the basis of ensuring quality standards, domestic products have obvious advantages in terms of price and have outstanding cost performance in the international market.
Second, domestic companies have long insisted on independent technology research and development, and the technical level of high-end products leads the world.
In the past ten years, major domestic optical module leading companies have continued to invest in technology research and development to overcome various technical problems in high-end optical modules and break the technology monopoly of overseas companies.
Nowadays, in the global 800G and 1.6T new generation high-speed optical module market, the overall market share of domestic manufacturers has reached more than 70%. Among the top ten optical module manufacturers in the world, Chinese companies occupy 7 seats.
In terms of product iteration speed, domestic R&D teams can keep up with the development pace of the global computing industry, lay out next-generation products in advance, and be able to prioritize the launch of high-end hardware that meets the requirements of overseas customers. Major overseas cloud computing companies and AI computing power construction manufacturers are willing to purchase domestic products.
At present, the production lines of many domestic optical module production factories are producing around the clock, and overseas orders have been scheduled for the next two years. The companies are in full production capacity, which confirms the strong demand in overseas markets.
Third, national-level policies continue to support the development of high-tech manufacturing.
In recent years, my country has vigorously encouraged independent innovation in high-end manufacturing industries, introduced a number of support policies, granted research and development subsidies and tax incentives to high-tech enterprises, and vigorously promoted the construction of the computing power industry chain.
Domestic enterprises have a good development environment and dare to invest long-term funds to develop core technologies and slowly complete technology accumulation.
At the same time, the country continues to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade, continuously optimizes import and export customs clearance policies, accelerates the efficiency of high-tech products going overseas, and helps domestic high-tech products go global.
The large-scale export of domestic optical modules to overseas markets will have a multi-dimensional positive impact.
From a macro foreign trade perspective, the export of high-end mechanical and electrical products has grown rapidly, optimizing the structure of my country’s export commodities.
In the past, my country’s foreign trade exports mainly relied on low value-added products such as clothing and small commodities. Now, high-tech parts and components have become the main force in exports. The quality of foreign trade profits has steadily improved, and the ability to withstand global economic fluctuations has become stronger. As for the domestic industry level, the huge order demand from overseas markets has forced domestic companies to continue to deepen their core technologies and drive upstream light.
More core industries such as chips are accelerating to achieve domestic breakthroughs, improving the entire computing power industry chain, and consolidating the hardware foundation of my country’s artificial intelligence industry; from an employment perspective, the rapid expansion of the optical module industry has driven the creation of a large number of high-tech jobs, attracted a large number of science and engineering talents to join the manufacturing industry, and promoted the continuous increase of domestic high-end technical talent reserves.
We also need to objectively understand the current situation. In the upstream high-end optical chip field of optical modules, some core technologies are still in the hands of overseas companies. The domestic industry still has bottlenecks and shortcomings. In the future, domestic high-tech companies will still need to continue to increase investment in research and development, make up for technical shortcomings, and achieve independent control of the entire industry chain.
In general, the export volume of domestic 800G optical modules has surged hundreds of times, which is a microcosm of the rise of domestic high-end manufacturing.
Relying on a solid industrial foundation and continuous independent innovation, more domestic high-tech products will go abroad in the future and occupy a place in the global market, continuing to drive the high-quality and steady development of our country’s economy.
