A report from Central China Securities Co.,Ltd. states that the development speed of AI applications in 2026 has overall exceeded expectations, leading to tightness across the computing power industry supply chain. Against the backdrop of restricted overseas chip supply in 2026, domestic AI chips have seen improvements in both performance and production capacity. They are expected to continue benefiting from shifts in the market structure and ultimately enhance China's domestic computing power supply capability. The main viewpoints of Central China Securities Co.,Ltd. are as follows:
Localization: In the first three months of 2026, China's integrated circuit export volume and value increased by 13% and 73% year-on-year respectively. The ratio of integrated circuit export value to import value rose from 37.1% in 2022 to 56.6% in the first two months of 2026. In the second half of 2025, the localization rate of China's AI chips increased from 35% in the first half of 2025 to 46%, showing a clear upward trend. Domestic AI chip manufacturers experienced sustained improvement in business activity during 2025, with two of them achieving profitability. In 2026, as domestic AI chips accelerate their development, they are expected to begin expanding into overseas markets.
Computing Power: In the global server market in Q4 2025, the United States saw a year-on-year growth rate of 72.4%, while China's growth was only 17.7%, a significant decline compared to the 93.3% growth rate in Q4 2024. The bank believes this is mainly due to chip shortages affecting the release of server demand. In 2026, with the landing of large-scale mobile centralized procurement orders and the construction of a 60,000-card supercomputing cluster in Zhengzhou, super nodes are becoming a development trend. Computing power construction was constrained by chip supply in 2025. In 2026, bolstered by both AI application growth and improved supply capacity of domestic chips, the pace of industry computing power construction shows clear signs of acceleration, with third-party data center manufacturers initiating active construction plans.
AI: Currently, domestic models' capabilities are mainly concentrated in the second tier. As manufacturers successively release new models, the overall level is becoming more concentrated, and cost-performance advantages are becoming more prominent. The number of enterprise customers spending over $1 million annually with Anthropic grew from over 500 in February to over 1000 in April, with the elasticity of business growth fully manifesting in 2026. In March, Doubao's daily token usage exceeded 120 trillion, representing a 140% quarter-on-quarter increase. The explosive growth in AI application demand is driving continuous increases in computing power prices, with model vendors and cloud vendors issuing multiple rounds of price hike notices.
Investment Recommendation: It is advised to focus on Runze Technology, the core data center supplier for ByteDance, which has plans for large-scale intelligent computing center deliveries, and Sugon, a server manufacturer with integrated industrial chain advantages that also holds stakes in high-quality enterprises. It is also recommended to actively monitor ChangXin Memory Technologies, Xpeedic, Unisoc, Superfusion, T-Head, and Zhipu AI, which are actively pursuing IPOs.
Risk Warning: Uncertainty in the international situation; risks of market adjustments due to changes in the competitive landscape of the overseas AI industry.
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