Have you noticed how AI has become increasingly capable? It can craft marketing copy, generate images, and answer questions almost instantly. Yet behind these marvels lies a vast network of servers burning through computational power around the clock—making computing power the most essential infrastructure of our era. Now, everyday investors can bundle the entire computing supply chain into a single product.
On September 18, the ChiNext Computing Infrastructure ETF (158050) from E Fund, which tracks the ChiNext Computing Infrastructure Index, will officially begin trading. Wind data reveals that it has attracted over 18,000 valid subscription accounts, ranking first among currently established ChiNext computing ETFs.
To understand this product, one must first grasp what computing power actually entails. Put simply, computing power is a device's capacity to process data and complete calculations—equivalent to a computer's horsepower. Training large models, enabling AI conversations, and generating images all depend on hardware like CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerator chips to provide that horsepower. However, complex AI tasks often require thousands of chips working in tandem. Consequently, chips are housed in servers, and large numbers of servers are deployed together with networking, storage, power supply, cooling, and racks to form data centers.
Thus, computing infrastructure encompasses far more than just chips and servers—it is an entire ecosystem supporting the production and operation of computing capacity, from computational devices, networks, and storage to data centers, power, cooling, and maintenance. Demand in this sector is surging. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data shows that as of the end of June 2026, China's intelligent computing capacity had reached 2185 EFLOPS, up 177% year-over-year. More importantly, regardless of which AI application ultimately prevails, as long as AI continues to evolve, computing infrastructure remains an absolute necessity.
Policy support is also intensifying. From the "East Data, West Computing" project establishing 8 hub nodes and 10 data center clusters, to the joint issuance of the High-Quality Development Action Plan for Computing Infrastructure by six government departments, it is clear that computing infrastructure has been elevated to a strategic priority.
With a grasp on what computing infrastructure entails, let's examine the ChiNext Computing Infrastructure Index this ETF tracks. Think of an index as a scorecard prepared by professional index companies to gauge the collective performance of a group of companies—when it rises, it indicates those firms are doing well overall. This particular scorecard selects companies from ChiNext-listed firms whose businesses span computation, networking, storage, and operations. Following it reveals four segments of the computing supply chain.
The computation segment is the source of computing power. Every sentence a large model generates or image it recognizes involves massive chip-level calculations. AI chips are the origin of computing power, while servers organize hundreds or thousands of chips to work together. As of August 30, 2026, according to Shenwan tertiary industry classification, digital chip design accounts for approximately 5.7% of the ChiNext computing index, and other computer equipment for about 3.8%.
The networking segment acts as the data transmission superhighway. When tens of thousands of chips train collaboratively, they exchange data every second; any congestion forces the entire cluster to halt. This is the largest portion of the index—communication network equipment and components represent about 21.7%, covering optical module and optical component leaders such as Zhongji Innolight, Eoptolink Technology, Tianfu Communication, and T&S Communications. Printed circuit boards account for roughly 12.6%, and communication application value-added services about 11.1%, collectively exceeding 40% of the index.
The storage segment serves as the data granary. AI model training routinely processes tens of terabytes or even petabytes of data; if data cannot be stored or accessed quickly enough, even the most powerful chips operate idle and underfed. Xieshu Data, the index's largest weighted stock, belongs to this category, deriving its primary revenue from data storage devices. The operations and support segment forms an invisible yet indispensable foundation, encompassing data center construction and operations, computing services, cooling, and power. Currently, IT services represent about 16.1% of the index, covering computing services and IDC operators; other power equipment accounts for approximately 4.5%, and refrigeration and air conditioning equipment around 3.2%, with temperature control and liquid cooling companies also included.
Linking these four segments together reveals a complete panorama of the computing infrastructure supply chain.
From an investment standpoint, the ChiNext Computing Infrastructure Index has a user-friendly design feature—balance and diversification. It imposes weight ceilings on individual stocks: during rebalancing, any single constituent in the processor or computational equipment space cannot exceed 10% weight, while other areas are capped at 3%. Even leading optical module makers like Zhongji Innolight, with a total market cap exceeding one trillion yuan, remain within the 3% threshold. This indicates the index tends to allocate across more sub-sectors rather than concentrating bets on a few chip or communication giants.
Another characteristic is high volatility. All constituent stocks are drawn from ChiNext, naturally carrying the 20% price fluctuation limit. Compared to computing indices that select stocks across the entire market, when market sentiment warms and the computing sector rallies, ChiNext's high-volatility trait may help the index demonstrate stronger short-term performance.
For those bullish on the long-term computing infrastructure trend who prefer not to pick stocks individually, a one-basket balanced allocation offers a more convenient approach. An ETF bundles a group of companies within a sector into a single product—tradable like individual stocks, where buying one ETF simultaneously purchases shares in every company within the index, with proportions automatically set according to index weights, eliminating the need to determine which firms are stronger or how much to allocate. To make a one-click bet on computing infrastructure, investors can consider the ChiNext Computing Infrastructure ETF (158050) from E Fund.
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