Major Chinese semiconductor manufacturers recorded a 2,579.5% year-over-year profit increase in the first half of 2026, according to National Bureau of Statistics data reported by Harici and Economy.ac. The reported rise coincided with expanding AI and data-center computing demand, while China's integrated-circuit output rose 23% to about 280 billion units.
Major Chinese semiconductor manufacturers recorded a 2,579.5% year-over-year increase in profits during the first half of 2026, according to data from China's National Bureau of Statistics reported by Harici and Economy.ac. The figure reverses a 1.8% decline reported for the industry's first-half profits a year earlier.
Yu Weining, a senior statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics, attributed the increase to expanding AI integration across industries and the resulting need for computing capacity, according to both reports. Harici reported that profits across the electronics industry rose 97% year over year during the same period.
Production and company forecasts
Harici reported that China's integrated-circuit production increased 23% year over year to roughly 280 billion units in the first six months of 2026, equivalent to more than 1.5 billion chips per day on average.
The reports also cited first-half earnings forecasts from several companies:
- • Shenzhen Longsys Electronics, a memory-module manufacturer, forecast profit growth of more than 600 times from a year earlier. - • GigaDevice, a flash-memory designer, projected a 1,099% year-over-year increase in net profit, with the reports citing supply shortages and higher product prices. - • Hygon Information Technology, a supplier of CPUs and DCUs used for AI computing, projected profit growth of up to 52.3%, according to Harici.
The reported differences between memory-related companies and AI-processor suppliers are material. Memory markets can experience sharp earnings swings when constrained supply meets rapidly rising demand, while processor suppliers face different product, software, and manufacturing constraints.
Infrastructure demand behind the numbers
The original Silicon UK item, indexed by IT Security News, connects the rise to an AI boom in mainland China and a race to build data centers. The National Bureau of Statistics data, as reported by Harici, also showed total profits at major industrial enterprises rising 18.7% to 4 trillion yuan in the first half of 2026.
For ML infrastructure teams, the figures provide a macro-level indicator of stronger regional demand for compute components, particularly memory and integrated circuits. They do not, however, establish the availability, performance, or software compatibility of specific Chinese accelerators for production AI workloads. Comparable AI infrastructure cycles often create uneven gains across the semiconductor supply chain: component suppliers can benefit quickly from capacity demand, while deployment teams still evaluate hardware through workload benchmarks, memory bandwidth, compiler support, networking, and total system cost.
Key Points #
- 1National Bureau of Statistics data showed Chinese chipmaker profits rose 2,579.5%, reflecting unusually strong first-half AI-compute demand.
- 2Integrated-circuit output reached about 280 billion units, expanding the manufacturing backdrop for China's data-center buildout.
- 3Comparable infrastructure booms reward memory suppliers rapidly, while practitioners still need workload-level hardware and software validation.
Scoring Rationale #
The reported profit and production increases indicate a substantial expansion in China's semiconductor and AI-compute supply chain. The story matters to ML infrastructure practitioners tracking regional component capacity and memory markets, although it provides no new hardware benchmark or product specification.
Sources #
Public references used for this report. economy.ac“Explosive Profit Growth, Blockbuster IPO, and Homegrown Equipment”: China Accelerates Its Semiconductor Drive Despite Technology Gap, While Korea and Taiwan Counter With Advanced Division of Labor
[harici.com.trChinese chipmaker profits surge 2,500% on explosive AI computing demand](https://harici.com.tr/en/chinese-chipmaker-profits-surge-2500-on-explosive-ai-computing-demand/)
[itsecuritynews.infoChina Chipmakers See Profits Surge 2,579.5 Percent](https://www.itsecuritynews.info/china-chipmakers-see-profits-surge-2579-5-percent-2/)
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