Cambricon posted revenue of 2.89 billion yuan ($423 million) for the quarter, a 160% increase over the same period last year, with its net profit rising 185% to 1 billion yuan. These figures are striking given the company's history — as recently as early 2024, Cambricon was still loss-making and had just lost Huawei as a major customer. Its full-year 2025 revenue reached 6.5 billion yuan with a net profit of 2.06 billion yuan, and marked the company's first annual profit since it was founded in 2016. Cambricon's top five clients accounted for 94% of the company's revenue in the first half of 2025, with the largest single customer contributing roughly 80%. Chinese media identifies ByteDance as the dominant buyer, with Caixin reporting the TikTok parent pre-ordered approximately 200,000 Siyuan 590 chips . Whether that concentration eased in subsequent quarters is unclear, but Alibaba is also expected to become a significant buyer as it expands domestic AI infrastructure. Cambricon is one of only two companies on China's government-approved AI hardware procurement list, alongside Huawei; Nvidia, despite easing U.S. restrictions , still isn’t. The company is targeting 500,000 AI accelerator shipments in 2026, up from an estimated 116,000 units in 2025, and reaching that goal depends heavily on SMIC's ability to produce chips at its 7nm-class node, where yields have been reported at around 20% . MetaX, which went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December, reported Q1 revenue of 561.9 million yuan, up 75% year over year, but the company still recorded a net loss of 98.8 million yuan. Founded in 2020 by former AMD engineers, MetaX attributed the revenue growth to higher GPU shipments but remains far smaller than Cambricon and has yet to reach profitability. Both companies are part of a broader shift in China's AI hardware supply chain . Chinese chipmakers delivered 1.65 million AI GPUs in 2025, capturing 41% of the domestic AI server market, according to IDC figures reported by Reuters in early April. Huawei led domestic suppliers with approximately 812,000 units shipped. Bernstein analysts project Nvidia's China market share could fall to around 8% in the coming years as local alternatives scale up, though all of these domestic processors remain multiple generations behind Nvidia's current Blackwell architecture, in terms of raw performance.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News , or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.\u00a0 Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-22/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cambricons-q1-revenue-hits-423-million-as-chinas-domestic-ai-chip-market-accelerates#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- Get 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM for just $249 — act fast and don't miss Woot's blowout sale
- Save $800 on this Alienware Aurora 5080 desktop — 4K powerhouse with Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage now just $2,899
- Sony rolls out 30-day online DRM check-in for PlayStation digital games — players could temporarily lose access if they don't keep their consoles online
- Nvidia quietly launches 12GB RTX 5070 laptop GPU — midrange mobile gaming gets more VRAM amid the RAMpocalypse
- Samsung and SK hynix warn AI-driven memory shortages could last until 2027 and beyond, as HBM demand explodes — customers already reserving supply years ahead,
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.