Cambricon Posts 108% Surge in First-Half Revenue as China's AI Chip Substitution Drive Accelerates

Chinese AI chip designer Cambricon Technologies reported August 7 that first-half 2026 revenue rose 108% year-on-year to 6 billion yuan ($890 million), with net profit up 122.6% to 2.3 billion yuan, as Beijing's push to replace Nvidia hardware with domestic alternatives continued to drive orders. Q2 revenue was 3.1 billion yuan, in line with a Bloomberg-polled analyst consensus of 3 billion yuan, with Q2 net profit of 1.3 billion yuan up from 1 billion yuan in Q1. Cambricon attributed the surge to steady growth in AI computing demand and expanded partnerships with major finance and internet firms, saying it was 'leveraging our core competitiveness in AI chips' to deepen those relationships. Digitimes reported August 10 that supply capacity remains the key constraint on Cambricon's ability to keep converting demand into revenue growth. The results extend a run of blowout growth for the company, whose shares have been a bellwether of China's broader AI chip self-sufficiency drive alongside CXMT's July 27 STAR Market debut and Huawei's Ascend ramp.