Chinese tech profits surge 4x on chip sector; AI drives fastest growth in four years
China's listed company earnings hit their highest rate in a year driven by artificial intelligence and domestic chip manufacturing, with the star market seeing more than fourfold profit growth while buy-back plans reached over $29.8 billion.
Chinese listed companies recorded their fastest profit growth in four years during the first half of 2026, fueled by artificial intelligence demand and a push for technological domestic substitution. Profits for firms on the chip-heavy Star Market under the Shanghai Stock Exchange surged more than fourfold from a year earlier in the six months ending June. Companies on the similarly structured ChiNext board in Shenzhen reported a 33 percent increase over the same period. These figures outpaced a 19.5 percent increase for all 5,557 mainland China-listed companies. The interim earnings season concluded on Tuesday. This disparity reflects Beijing's strategy to prioritize technology and self-reliance against U.S. competition in the artificial intelligence race. Big tech platforms are accelerating AI adoption by utilizing domestically produced chips. Memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies and other hardware firms increased capacity after accessing capital markets. Analyst Zhang Qiyao from Industrial Securities noted that technology and high-end manufacturing are becoming new engines of economic growth. Approximately one-fifth of listed companies announced buy-back plans totaling more than 200 billion yuan, which exceeds $29.8 billion by the end of August.
