Cambricon Surpasses Moutai: What Makes This AI Chipmaker So Special?
In a historic moment for China’s stock market, AI chip leader Cambricon has overtaken long-time market champion Kweichow Moutai to become the most expensive stock on the A-share market. This isn’t just a headline for investors—it’s also a milestone that reflects the growing weight of technology in China’s economy.
In August 2025, Cambricon’s share price surged to 1,462 RMB per share, surpassing Moutai’s 1,448 RMB (as of August 28, 2025, 11:43). While Cambricon’s market capitalization (about 611.6 billion RMB) is still far behind Moutai’s 1.84 trillion RMB, the symbolic victory is striking: it signals a clear shift in investor confidence, from traditional consumer goods to cutting-edge technology.
Who is Cambricon, the New “Stock King” of A-shares?
Founded in 2016 and listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market in 2020, Cambricon is a company focused on designing and developing artificial intelligence chips.
Despite being less than a decade old, it turned profitable for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2024. By the first half of 2025, Cambricon’s performance skyrocketed—its revenue reached 2.88 billion RMB, up over 4,300% year-on-year, and net profit hit 1.04 billion RMB, swinging from loss to profit.
Clearly, there must be strong reasons behind such a soaring stock price. Let’s take a closer look.
Three Key Strengths of Cambricon
1. Technology Alignment: Tailored for China’s AI Ecosystem
Cambricon’s chip designs are closely synchronized with the development of domestic large AI models. For example, the DeepSeek-V3.1 model adopted an optimized data format (“UE8MOFP8”), specially designed for Cambricon 690 chips and Huawei’s Ascend series.
This format reduces power consumption by about 15% and improves energy efficiency by 20%, making Cambricon’s chips faster and cheaper to run when powering AI models.
Another point worth noting: Huawei is also a major AI chip provider, but only Cambricon is publicly listed. This naturally makes it a prime target for investors.
2. Explosive Orders: Riding the Wave of Substitution
With U.S. restrictions tightening on high-performance AI chips, Nvidia now supplies only “cut-down” versions (B30/B40) to the Chinese market, which suffer from weaker connectivity, limited memory, and poor cost-performance. This creates a golden opportunity for Cambricon. Reports suggest that ByteDance’s 2025 AI chip procurement plan—worth about 60 billion RMB—could give Cambricon 40–60% of the share. Major players like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have also listed Cambricon as a supplier. Such contracts could push Cambricon’s revenue to 50 billion RMB by 2026.
3. Innovation and R&D: A Complete “Cloud–Edge–Car” Strategy
Unlike many of its peers, Cambricon is building a full product line across cloud servers, edge computing, and automotive chips.
In early 2025, it launched a subsidiary called Cambricon Xingge, focused on smart driving. Its upcoming car chip, made with 7nm technology, boasts over 200 TOPS computing power—enough to support advanced autonomous driving.
By mid-2025, the company had filed 2,774 patents, with 1,599 already granted, securing a strong technology moat.
Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
While Cambricon has made huge strides in China, it still faces tough competition from global giants like Nvidia. The AI chip industry evolves at breakneck speed—if Cambricon cannot keep up, today’s advantage may not last.
Its share price leap over Moutai is symbolic: China’s stock market is shifting from a “faith in liquor” to a “faith in technology.” Cambricon’s success rests on its technical expertise, its ability to capture domestic demand, and its ambitious full-stack strategy.
But the road ahead won’t be easy. The company still needs to strengthen its cash flow, expand its customer base, and prove itself on the global stage.
Foreign investment banks have even set a target price of 1,835 RMB for Cambricon, suggesting that investors see it as a symbol of China’s ambition for self-reliance in AI chips. The journey will be challenging—but full of promise.
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