In 2026, China’s foreign trade data will see a structural change: integrated circuits will become the largest single category of exported goods for the first time.
The cumulative export volume in the first four months was approximately US$103.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 83.7%, accounting for 12.2% of the total exports of mechanical and electrical products.
Behind this figure is a profound transition of leading domestic chip companies from a long “investment period” to a “performance fulfillment period”. Performance explosions resonate with technological breakthroughs, and the hard technology field shows a clear new development trend.
From burning money to making money, the leading performance collectively “exploded”.
Turning to the first quarter report of 2026, the financial data of major chip design companies marks a switch in the main theme of the industry.
Changxin Technology, as the leader in domestic DRAM, had revenue of 50.8 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 719.13%; net profit attributable to its parent company reached 24.762 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1688.30%.
Its single-quarter net profit has exceeded the total of all listed companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board for the same period, and its net profit in the first half of the year is expected to be between 50 billion and 57 billion yuan.
Leaders in other segments also performed strongly.
Haiguang Information’s revenue in the first quarter was 4.034 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.06%, and its market value exceeded 800 billion yuan. Its DCU Deep Computing No. 3 has been adapted to more than 400 mainstream large models.
In the first quarter, Ziguang Guowei achieved operating income of 1.499 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.11%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 334 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 180.27%.
Six years after its listing, a domestic AI chip leader achieved positive operating cash flow in its quarterly report for the first time, with an amount of 834 million yuan, completing a closed business loop from research and development to payment collection.
A domestic GPU design leader achieved quarterly profit for the first time, with revenue soaring 155% year-on-year.
Industry analysts pointed out that the performance explosion stems from the triple resonance of AI computing power demand, the super price increase cycle of memory chips, and the acceleration of domestic substitution.
In the second quarter of 2026, DRAM contract prices increased by 58%-63% from the previous quarter.
Hard-core technology breakthroughs, moving from catching up to parallel.
The foundation of performance growth lies in the continuous improvement of core technical capabilities.
In many key areas, domestic chips are narrowing the generation gap and even proposing new paths.
In the field of computing chips, independent ecological construction and compatibility breakthroughs are carried out simultaneously.
Through “CPU + DCU” dual-core synergy, Haiguang Information’s C86 series CPUs are natively compatible with the x86 ecosystem and achieve more than 90% scenario computing power coverage in key industries such as finance.
Loongson Zhongke adheres to the completely independent LoongArch instruction set architecture, and its gross profit margin will increase to 47.06% in 2025.
As a supplier of cloud AI chips, Suiyuan Technology ranks among the top two in the domestic market share. Its “Liaoyuan” intelligent computing cluster 3.0 can improve linear acceleration by more than 30% compared with traditional solutions when training large models with trillions of parameters.
In the manufacturing and packaging process, both mass production of independent equipment and theoretical innovation are promoted.
The localization rate of core components of Shanghai Microelectronics’ SSA800 series 28nm immersion DUV lithography machine has exceeded 90%. It plans to produce 50 units per year in 2026, and has impacted ASML’s market share in China.
Huawei released the “Tao (τ) Law” and proposed to replace the traditional “geometric micronization” with “time micronization”, providing a new theoretical framework for industrial development.
Changdian Technology’s XDFOI platform has supported 4nm Chiplet mass production, with HBM3e packaging yield reaching 98.5%, entering the supply chain of international giants.
In terms of storage technology, Changxin Technology skipped 17nm and directly developed 16nm DDR5 products, compressing the process generation gap to about one year. Its HBM3 product has been sampled by the end of 2025.
The rise of regional clusters and distinctive misaligned competition.
The rise of domestic chips is not a solo effort by enterprises, but the result of coordinated efforts by regional industrial clusters, forming a distinct dislocation competition pattern.
“Design is king” in Shenzhen, relying on its profound foundation in the electronics industry, it has embarked on a path of “application of reverse push technology”.
The city has 5,456 integrated circuit-related companies, contributing nearly 30% of the country’s design output value.
The “Five Storage Tigers” of Guangdong – Longsys, Netac Technology, Dapu Micro, Baiwei Storage, and Demingli have both experienced explosive performance and stock prices in 2026. Among them, Dapu Micro’s stock price increased approximately 11 times from the issue price within 37 trading days of its listing.
Hefei’s “manufacturing breakthrough” has created an integrated “manufacturing + materials” cluster through the precise introduction of Changxin storage and supporting industry chains. In 2025, the output value of integrated circuits will increase by 42% year-on-year.
Chengdu’s “dislocated competition” relies on the foundation of foreign-invested manufacturing bases and focuses on cultivating the packaging and testing and computing power industries. Packaging and testing companies account for 45%, making it the largest packaging and testing center in the west.
At the same time, it has cultivated leading companies such as Haiguang Information and Xinyi Sheng (the first to realize batch shipment of 1.6T optical modules).
The future path is to build advantages in mature processes and system innovation.
While global attention is focused on competition in cutting-edge manufacturing processes, China’s chip industry has established scale and cost advantages in the fields of mature manufacturing processes (28 nanometers and above) that are used the most.
Categories such as driver chips, MCUs, and analog chips are undergoing large-scale expansion of production, and have become “invisible supporting actors” supporting the global AI infrastructure due to their cost-effectiveness.
At the same time, improving overall performance through system-level optimization such as advanced packaging, chiplets, and architectural innovation has become one of the core paths for domestic chips to improve their competitiveness.
As companies such as Suiyuan Technology have entered the capital market, and Ziguang Guowei has improved the power semiconductor industry chain through acquisitions, industrial capital and technology iteration have formed a positive cycle.
From the peak of customs data to the red-hot financial reports of leading companies, from single-point technological breakthroughs to the formation of regional ecology, the domestic chip industry is going through a critical stage from “investment” to “cashing out”, from “following” to “running alongside”.
Its development trend is not only reflected in the financial statements, but also embedded in the restructuring process of the global semiconductor supply chain.
