The start of the new year saw significant moves from A-share listed companies, with one firm valued at over 100 billion yuan initiating a major asset restructuring plan aimed at injecting a 280 billion yuan data center asset package into the listed entity.
This company is Dongyang Sunshine, a leader in aluminum foil materials. On February 25, Dongyang Sunshine announced plans to acquire control of Dongshu Yihao by issuing shares and to raise supporting funds, leading to a trading halt. Dongshu Yihao was established by Dongyang Sunshine Group and Dongyang Sunshine as the vehicle for acquiring the Chinese operations of Qinwen Data. This move signals Dongyang Sunshine's intention to integrate the 280 billion yuan data center asset package into the listed company.
As a top player in aluminum foil materials, Dongyang Sunshine has accelerated its layout in the AI industry chain since 2025, with the acquisition of Qinwen Data's Chinese operations being its most substantial recent move.
Benefiting from these strategic initiatives, Dongyang Sunshine's stock price has surged nearly threefold since June 2025. Prior to the trading halt on February 24, its total market capitalization reached 113.8 billion yuan. According to the 2025 Hurun Rich List, Zhang Yushuai and Guo Meilan, the mother-son duo controlling Dongyang Sunshine, became Dongguan's new richest individuals with a fortune of 40 billion yuan.
Starting with a single piece of formed foil, the company built an industry giant from scratch.
Before founding Dongyang Sunshine, Zhang Zhongneng had already achieved notable success. The entrepreneur, born in Dongyang, Zhejiang, held key roles at Hengdian Group in his hometown, including serving as general manager.
In 1997, Zhang resigned to start his own business, leading a team to establish Dongyang Sunshine in Ruyuan, Shaoguan, Guangdong, far from his hometown. The company, whose name signifies "the light of Dongyang," began with formed foil and eventually grew into the expansive Dongyang Sunshine Group.
Formed foil, produced from specially made high-purity aluminum foil through complex processes, is a key material for aluminum electrolytic capacitors, which are widely used in home appliances, consumer electronics, industrial applications, and automotive sectors.
Dongyang Sunshine's inception can be described as creating something from nothing. At the time, Japanese firms dominated the formed foil industry, monopolizing key production technologies. Collaborating with Xi'an Jiaotong University, Dongyang Sunshine achieved breakthroughs in formed foil, filling a domestic industry gap and breaking the Japanese monopoly.
Additionally, Dongyang Sunshine's "from scratch" story holds another meaning. Since aluminum is the primary raw material for formed foil, foil companies are typically located in regions rich in aluminum resources. However, Shaoguan, where Dongyang Sunshine started, lacked such resources, seemingly making it unsuitable for formed foil production. Yet, Zhang Zhongneng's sharp judgment enabled him to master the industry's essentials.
Zhang recognized that although Shaoguan had no aluminum resources, its location in the Pearl River Delta placed it near numerous customers for aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Establishing a factory in Ruyuan allowed natural proximity to clients and markets. Moreover, electricity is a major cost in formed foil production, and Ruyuan's abundant hydropower resources significantly reduced production expenses.
Zhang's judgment proved correct. Leveraging the Pearl River Delta's customer base, Dongyang Sunshine quickly became a leader in the foil industry. Its product range expanded from formed foil to include corroded foil, electronic bright foil, and the entire capacitor supply chain, entering new sectors such as air conditioning aluminum foil.
In 2003, Dongyang Sunshine's foil business went public through a reverse merger with "Chengliang Shares," by which time it led the domestic market in scale and share for hydrophilic aluminum foil used in residential air conditioners.
Subsequently, Dongyang Sunshine further extended its industrial chain. Since foil processing requires large amounts of acid and alkali raw materials, the company built its own chlor-alkali plant in 2004, entering the chemical industry. It later ventured into methane chloride production and expanded into fluorochemicals, manufacturing products like PVDF and refrigerants.
Meanwhile, Dongyang Sunshine Group, headquartered in Dongguan, began diversifying into more sectors. As early as 2001, the group acquired a small active pharmaceutical ingredient plant in Yidu, Hubei, entering the biopharmaceutical industry. In 2003, it formally established Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical, a comprehensive drug company. Today, Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical is a listed company with a market cap exceeding 23 billion Hong Kong dollars, with its flagship product being the influenza drug Kewei (oseltamivir phosphate granules/capsules).
The group also entered the health and wellness sector, launching a series of products centered around "Dongyang Sunshine Fresh Cordyceps."
In November 2020, group founder Zhang Zhongneng passed away due to illness. His son, Zhang Yushuai, took over, leading Dongyang Sunshine Group into a "second entrepreneurship" phase. The listed company Dongyang Sunshine, focused on foil and chemical operations, began showing renewed vitality, with its stock price rising steadily and its market cap growing into the hundreds of billions.
Under the leadership of the "second-generation entrepreneur," the company's AI industry chain布局 propelled him to become Dongguan's new richest individual.
For a considerable period, Dongyang Sunshine was not particularly prominent in the A-share market, with its market cap hovering between 20-30 billion yuan. This was largely because its main businesses—foil and chemicals—belonged to traditional manufacturing sectors, subject to industry cycles and significant earnings volatility. Moreover, its毛利率 were relatively low; in 2024, the毛利率 for its high-end foil products, which accounted for the largest revenue share, was only 4.57%.
After Zhang Zhongneng's passing, Zhang Yushuai and his mother Guo Meilan jointly steered Dongyang Sunshine Group. In December 2025, the 62-year-old Guo transferred her core assets to her son due to her age, making Zhang Yushuai the sole actual controller of Dongyang Sunshine. This marked a smooth transition of power for the "second-generation entrepreneur."
Under Zhang Yushuai's leadership, Dongyang Sunshine began shifting from traditional manufacturing toward high-tech fields, with a focus on the AI industry chain.
In February 2025, Dongyang Sunshine partnered with Zhiyuan Robotics, Peking University Wuhan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Lingchu Intelligence to establish humanoid robot company Guanggu Dongzhi, formally entering the humanoid robot industry. The company has since launched multiple products in the "Photon" series of humanoid robots, representing a key move in embodied intelligence.
In March 2025, Dongyang Sunshine set up a joint venture with Zhongji Xuchuang, named Guangdong Shenlin Zhileng Technology Co., Ltd., to enter the liquid cooling industry. This was another business extension leveraging the company's existing strengths.
Current liquid cooling technologies mainly include cold plate liquid cooling, immersion cooling, and spray cooling. Dongyang Sunshine focused on cold plate and immersion cooling. Building on its original business and resource advantages, the company now possesses production capabilities for key liquid cooling materials like aluminum cold plates and fluorinated coolant, with progress in this area drawing significant market attention.
Additionally, in June 2025, Dongyang Sunshine's venture capital arm invested 90 million yuan to acquire a stake in optical chip company Zonghui Xinguang, aiming to integrate optical chip technology with liquid cooling for data center thermal management solutions.
Beyond humanoid robots and liquid cooling, Dongyang Sunshine's most substantial move was leading its group to acquire Qinwen Data's Chinese operations for 280 billion yuan.
Established in 2015, Qinwen Data is a leading operator of large-scale computing infrastructure solutions in China and a supplier to ByteDance. In September 2025, Dongyang Sunshine Group and listed company Dongyang Sunshine signed an agreement with Bain Capital, shareholders of Qinwen Data, to acquire 100% of Qinwen Data's China-related assets via newly established entity Dongshu Yihao for 280 billion yuan.
However, completing the acquisition was not the end goal; the ultimate aim was to inject Qinwen Data's assets into listed company Dongyang Sunshine. On February 25, 2026, Dongyang Sunshine announced it would acquire control of Dongshu Yihao by issuing shares and raise supporting funds. Due to uncertainties surrounding the transaction, the company's shares have been suspended from trading.
Multiple strategic moves since 2025 have enabled Dongyang Sunshine to transition from a traditional manufacturer to a high-tech player. This transformation has attracted market enthusiasm, driving continuous stock price increases. Since June 2025, Dongyang Sunshine's stock price has risen over 280% in nine months. As of February 24, before the trading halt, its latest market cap was 113.761 billion yuan, an increase of 85.2 billion yuan since early June 2025.
Benefiting from Dongyang Sunshine's rising market cap and the listing of Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical in Hong Kong, the wealth of Zhang Yushuai and Guo Meilan surged. According to the 2025 Hurun Rich List (wealth calculated as of September 1, 2025), the mother-son duo ranked 146th with a fortune of 40 billion yuan, becoming Dongguan's new richest individuals.
It is evident that under second-generation entrepreneur Zhang Yushuai's leadership, Dongyang Sunshine's accelerated pivot into high-tech sectors has captured significant attention from the capital markets.
However, at present, since Qinwen Data's assets have not yet been consolidated and their consolidation remains uncertain, and other new businesses are still in early stages, Dongyang Sunshine's new AI-related ventures have not yet driven明显 earnings growth. Whether these new initiatives will help Dongyang Sunshine achieve further breakthroughs remains to be seen.
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