On March 20, A-share optical module concept stocks surged collectively during the early trading session. Glier rose sharply by 24%, while Yanke Technology approached a 20% daily limit increase, becoming the eighth stock in A-share history to reach a price of 1,000 yuan. Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium hit the daily limit up, with Tengjing Technology, Changguang Huaxin, and Guangku Technology each gaining over 10%. Sunwave Technology advanced by 9.67%, and Zhongji Innolight increased by 8.5%.
Market analysts believe the sector's sentiment was ignited by multiple positive factors. These include the strong overnight performance of US optical communication stocks, surging AI computing power demand driving hardware upgrades, clear technological roadmaps and mass production timelines outlined at a major global industry conference, and the dense rollout of domestic computing power network policies.
The computing power industry chain is experiencing intensive catalysts. Global AI computing infrastructure is entering a rapid expansion cycle, with demand from large model training and inference growing exponentially. Since the Spring Festival, the popularity of models like Seedance2.0 and OpenClaw has accelerated computing demand, with domestic AI model invocation volumes already surpassing those of the United States. Recent price increases by Alibaba Cloud, Baidu Cloud, and Tencent Cloud further underscore the sustained surge in computing power demand.
Simultaneously, tech giants are ramping up AI-related capital expenditures and issuing ambitious guidance. NVIDIA forecasts that its computing chip revenue will reach $1 trillion by the end of 2027, while Alibaba aims for its cloud and AI commercialization annual revenue to exceed $100 billion within the next five years. Some institutions predict that 2026 will be a pivotal year for China's computing demand, transitioning from "cloud training" to dual-driven growth from both "training and inference," with the computing gap expected to widen rapidly across more modalities and scenarios.
On the supply side, the concurrent hosting of major global events like OFC 2026 and NVIDIA's GTC 2026 provided the industry with clear technological direction and production certainty. At GTC, Jensen Huang unveiled the next-generation Vera Rubin platform and Rubin Ultra architecture, CPO co-packaged optical switches, and an LPU inference system developed in collaboration with Groq. The OFC conference highlighted data center optical interconnect trends, indicating that bottlenecks for hyperscale AI data centers are shifting from single-chip computing power to cluster-level interconnect bandwidth, power consumption, and scalability.
Furthermore, policy support is providing a strong foundation for the computing industry. The 2026 Government Work Report for the first time listed "computing-power coordination" and "hyperscale intelligent computing clusters" as key new infrastructure projects to cultivate new productive forces, explicitly calling for accelerated development of a national integrated computing network. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology simultaneously launched the "Millisecond Computing" initiative, requiring comprehensive coverage of all-optical networks and high-speed optical transmission technologies, thereby creating rigid domestic demand for high-speed optical modules. Coupled with the ongoing implementation of the "East Data, West Computing" project, this series of policy measures further solidifies the long-term demand fundamentals for optical communication modules.
Looking ahead, several brokerages have issued reports expressing optimism about the optical module sector's prospects. Soochow Securities pointed out that as AI training and inference clusters continue to expand, optical module speeds are transitioning fully from 400G to 800G and accelerating towards 1.6T, with the product mix shifting rapidly towards higher specifications. High-speed products demand significantly greater precision in placement, coupling stability, test bandwidth, and consistency, driving equipment upgrades towards higher precision, automation, and uniformity. Concurrently, architectural evolution from traditional pluggables to CPO/OIO introduces new requirements for advanced packaging and integrated testing, increasing per-line equipment investment. The combination of demand expansion and technological advancement offers a dual driver of volume and price increases for equipment manufacturers.
China Securities Co., Ltd. believes that the rapid iteration of GPUs and ASICs is continuously enhancing computing performance while substantially increasing data transmission demands. Within AI data centers, more clients are opting for network hardware with greater bandwidth, as larger bandwidth offers lower cost per bit, reduced power consumption, and smaller form factors. The high growth rate of 800G optical modules already reflects the urgent demand for bandwidth driven by AI. The institution stated, "We anticipate that demand for 800G optical modules will continue its rapid growth trajectory in 2026, with shipment volumes for 1.6T modules also increasing substantially, and R&D for 3.2T modules formally commencing."
Regarding the growth potential of individual stocks, data from the East Money concept板块 shows nearly 80 stocks currently associated with the optical module concept, with a combined market capitalization exceeding 3.6 trillion yuan. Zhongji Innolight, Sunwave Technology, Dongshan Precision, and Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable are among the largest by market cap. Since the start of 2026, three-quarters of these concept stocks have recorded price increases, averaging around 24%. The sector has produced four stocks—Hangzhou Cable, Kechuan Technology, Kaige Intelligent, and Huilv Ecological—that have doubled in value, while Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable has seen its stock price nearly double.
According to East Money Choice data, based on forecasts from two or more institutions, as many as 28 optical module concept stocks are projected to achieve net profit growth exceeding 40% in 2026. Among them, Hefei Metalforming Intelligent Manufacturing and Cambridge Industries Group may see their net profits surge by over four times year-on-year. Changyingtong, Changguang Huaxin, and Sanan Optoelectronics are forecast to have profit increases of 3.8 times, 3 times, and 2.4 times, respectively. Eight stocks, including Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable, Shijia Photons, and Zhongji Innolight, are all expected to at least double their earnings.
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