The ongoing breakthroughs in large model technology are dissolving the final technical barriers for the large-scale deployment of AI at the edge, quietly initiating a "computing power migration" from the cloud to endpoints. In this transformation, AI ASICs have become the preferred choice for edge and endpoint deployment due to their comprehensive advantages in energy efficiency, millisecond-level response, cost optimization, and inherent privacy security offered by specialized architectures. As AI technology continues to permeate application endpoints and the edge AI market expands rapidly, AI ASICs are poised to play an increasingly central role in the smart device ecosystem. At this critical juncture for the industry, Zhongyin Microelectronics (Beijing) Co., Ltd. has initiated its journey towards a listing in Hong Kong, aiming to seize this historic industrial opportunity. It was observed that on March 29, Zhongyin Microelectronics submitted a listing application to the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Ping An Securities (Hong Kong) acting as the sole sponsor.
In terms of market position, Zhongyin Microelectronics has entered the top tier of the domestic AI ASIC custom chip industry. According to data from CIC, based on projected 2025 AI ASIC revenue, the company ranks third among domestic chip customization service providers in China. Furthermore, based on projected 2025 chip design and delivery revenue, it ranks second among domestic providers. However, financially, Zhongyin Microelectronics remains in a state of continuous losses. From 2023 to 2025, the company's revenue was approximately RMB 74.802 million, RMB 348 million, and RMB 484 million respectively, demonstrating sustained high growth. Yet, net profits for the same periods were approximately RMB -98.43 million, RMB -48.495 million, and RMB -164 million, showing a trend of fluctuating and widening losses. On one hand, the company has capitalized on the AI and semiconductor localization trends, achieving exponential revenue growth. On the other hand, its profit statement continues to show significant "bleeding," with losses amplifying alongside expansion. For Zhongyin Microelectronics, where growth and losses are both pronounced, the question of how to reasonably value the company is not only a practical test for investors but also a sharp challenge to traditional valuation logic.
Founded in 2021, Zhongyin Microelectronics has consistently focused on the R&D and commercialization of AI ASICs, developing into a leading domestic one-stop provider of customized domestic AI ASIC services. The company's self-built IC technology platform features intelligence, modularity, and automation. Supported by its core self-developed high-speed interface IP, it can provide customers with complete solutions ranging from chip architecture design to full lifecycle management. The company adopts a business model of "IP licensing + ASIC customization + collaborative manufacturing." Based on its proprietary high-speed interface IP, it designs and customizes ASICs using advanced process nodes and 2.5D/3D packaging, collaborating closely with third-party wafer foundries and OSAT partners to complete final chip delivery. In this process, Zhongyin Microelectronics leads the entire workflow from architecture design, logic implementation, and physical design to design-for-test, working collaboratively with manufacturing and packaging & testing partners to achieve comprehensive coverage from 4nm to 28nm process nodes.
Technologically, Zhongyin Microelectronics has established a complete IP R&D system encompassing algorithm modeling, circuit design, mixed-signal verification, layout, and back-end integration. By combining advanced process design with Chiplet architecture iteration, it has built a proprietary IP portfolio covering advanced processes from 4nm to 12nm, targeting high-end applications like AI, high-performance computing, and network communication. Currently, the company's proprietary IP mainly falls into three categories: high-speed data interface IP, high-speed memory interface IP, and chiplet interconnect interface IP, which together form the key support for its AI ASIC customization solutions. Among these, the high-speed data interface IP is based on 32–112 Gbps SerDes technology, supporting advanced protocols like PCIe Gen5. The high-speed memory interface IP supports standards such as HBM3 and LPDDR5x, and it has already launched LPDDR5x PHY IP licensing based on the 4nm process. The chiplet interconnect interface IP provides 112 Gbps ultra-short-distance inter-die connectivity within Chiplet architectures, supporting advanced 2.5D/3D packaging. Currently, Zhongyin Microelectronics is actively advancing the development of 112 Gbps long-reach SerDes based on the most advanced process nodes available domestically. This IP is a key technology for interconnecting large-scale AI chips and enabling efficient collaboration among thousands of computing cards, serving as a core foundation for the company's chip customization services.
In terms of application categories, Zhongyin Microelectronics' AI ASICs are mainly divided into three types: Cloud AI ASICs for data centers, large-scale AI model training and inference, and high-performance computing clusters; Edge AI ASICs for industrial AI systems, edge computing networks, and servers; and Endpoint AI ASICs for applications in automotive, smart terminals, IoT devices, and other fields. Regarding revenue structure, Zhongyin Microelectronics primarily has three revenue streams: Chip Design, Chip Delivery, and IP Licensing. Chip Design covers chip definition, front-end design, back-end design, tape-out, post-silicon support, and customer product enablement. Chip Delivery covers wafer-level silicon validation, advanced packaging and testing, and supply chain collaboration. In 2025, the proportions of Chip Design, Chip Delivery, and IP Licensing to total revenue were 42%, 49%, and 9% respectively. The catalysts behind Zhongyin Microelectronics' sustained revenue surge differ. In 2024, high revenue growth was primarily driven by the completion of tape-out and design delivery for multiple new projects, pushing Chip Design revenue to leap from RMB 41.259 million to RMB 231 million, constituting the core growth driver for the period; IP Licensing also contributed positively. By 2025, the growth engine had smoothly transitioned to the mass production delivery phase. As previously designed projects were concentratedly realized, Chip Delivery revenue surged from RMB 23.353 million to RMB 238 million, becoming the main driver for continued high revenue growth.
Focusing on the broader industry landscape, Zhongyin Microelectronics' explosive revenue growth resonates deeply with the industry's upward cycle. According to CIC data, between 2020 and 2025, the market size for chip customization services in China climbed from RMB 18.24 billion to RMB 68.41 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 30.3%. Notably, the AI ASIC chip customization segment grew even more remarkably, with its market size surging from RMB 4.42 billion to RMB 34.58 billion during the same period, achieving a CAGR of 50.9%, significantly outpacing the overall market. This clearly indicates that AI ASIC has become the core driving force behind the rapid expansion of the chip customization services market. Looking ahead, the high growth of the AI ASIC chip customization service market is underpinned by solid fundamentals, primarily driven by three factors: Firstly, computing demand is undergoing a structural shift. As AI applications move from training to deployment, the massive and fragmented computing power demands emerging on the inference side cannot be fully met by general-purpose GPUs, creating a rigid gap for specialized ASICs. Secondly, industry chain strategies are increasingly tilting towards autonomy, controllability, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement. Leading cloud providers and system manufacturers, aiming to build differentiated ecosystem barriers and reduce supply chain dependence, are actively developing their own inference chips, fundamentally expanding the base of customization demand. Additionally, the deepening division of labor within the industry addresses implementation challenges. Faced with the high barrier of chip design, the vast majority of application vendors choose to focus on upper-layer algorithms, outsourcing the underlying hardware implementation. This "separation of software and hardware" collaborative model directly translates into high reliance on professional chip customization service providers, providing sustained growth momentum for the market.
Based on this logic, CIC predicts that the Chinese chip customization service market will maintain high growth from 2025 to 2030, expanding from RMB 68.41 billion to RMB 274.47 billion, with a stable CAGR of 32%. Within this, AI ASIC chip customization, as the core growth driver, is expected to achieve a CAGR of 42.9% during the same period, continuing to lead the entire industry. In terms of competitive landscape, the domestic Chinese chip customization market exhibits a significant pattern of "one superpower, several strong players," with high concentration. The top five players collectively hold 70.9% of the market share, with Company A leading firmly with a 33.7% share. Although Zhongyin Microelectronics ranks third with a 9.4% share, still some distance behind the top two, it is well-positioned to achieve sustained scale expansion in the vast incremental market, leveraging the超高景气度 of the AI ASIC赛道.
While enjoying the high-growth红利 of the AI ASIC industry, Zhongyin Microelectronics' profitability challenges have become increasingly prominent, displaying a typical characteristic of "increasing revenue without increasing profits." It was observed that in 2025, Zhongyin Microelectronics' loss widened sharply from RMB 48.459 million to RMB 164 million. The core reason for this deterioration lies in a precipitous drop in gross profit margin. The company's overall gross profit margin for the year was only 27.7%, a significant decline of nearly 19 percentage points from 46.1% in 2024. A detailed breakdown of the business structure reveals that the Chip Design business, the mainstay of revenue, was the primary drag, with its gross margin plummeting from 40.8% to 16%. This reflects the cost pains associated with the company's move into advanced processes: to secure high-value orders, the company needs to advance substantial non-recurring engineering costs for wafer tape-out and materials. The growth rate of these costs far outpaces the recognition rhythm of design service fees, severely eroding profit margins. The decline in the Chip Design business's gross margin exposes inherent flaws in its business model. Superficially, the company earns high-value-added "design fees," but in advanced process projects, service providers often assume a role akin to a "general contractor," utilizing their own funds for substantial upfront advances. This has caused Zhongyin Microelectronics to somewhat degenerate into an "asset-heavy-like" operation, not only bearing the risk of material scrap from tape-out failures but also facing high working capital occupation. As of the end of 2025, the company's prepayments to suppliers, capacity guarantee deposits, and certificates of deposit totaled approximately RMB 188 million, accounting for over 40% of total assets.
With large amounts of capital tied up and the company in continuous losses, Zhongyin Microelectronics faces evident liquidity pressure. While operating cash flow was a net inflow of RMB 140 million in 2023, it turned into net outflows of RMB 129 million and RMB 158 million in 2024 and 2025, respectively. By the end of 2025, cash on the books stood at only RMB 115 million. Secondly, excessively high customer concentration is another operational challenge Zhongyin Microelectronics needs to address. According to the prospectus, revenue from the top five customers consistently accounted for over 70% (reaching as high as 95.1% in 2024), with the largest customer once contributing over 80%. Over-reliance on a single customer carries the potential risk of severe earnings volatility, susceptibility to price pressure from major clients, and a weaker position within the industry chain.
In summary,凭借 its explosive revenue growth and position among the top three domestic players by market share, Zhongyin Microelectronics is deeply tied to the high-growth AI ASIC赛道, forming the core support for its high valuation narrative. However, the realization of the company's value remains constrained by a dual枷锁 of "costs and customers": severe fluctuations in upstream wafer and tape-out costs continue to squeeze profit margins, compounded by a lack of pricing power resulting from excessive customer concentration, both posing severe tests to its profit resilience. The ability to effectively破解 these bottlenecks will directly determine whether the company can realize its long-term value during this period of industry红利.
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