Cambricon Reports H1 2026 Net Profit Surge of 122.61% to 2.311 Billion RMB
Chinese AI chipmaker Cambricon released its financial report for the first half of 2026, showing a 108.13% year-on-year revenue increase to 5.996 billion RMB and a 122.61% surge in net profit to 2.311 billion RMB. The company's core net profit (excluding non-recurring items) also grew by 137.3% to 2.166 billion RMB, significantly exceeding market expectations. This explosive growth highlights the surging demand for domestic AI hardware in China as local companies seek alternatives to restricted foreign chips like NVIDIA's. Cambricon's strong financial performance indicates its growing market share and viability in the highly competitive semiconductor industry. Despite the massive revenue and profit gains, Cambricon's operating cash flow dropped by 65.83% year-on-year to 311 million RMB. Additionally, its R&D investment as a percentage of revenue decreased by 7.09 percentage points to 11.72%, primarily due to the rapid expansion of its overall revenue scale.
## BACKGROUND
Cambricon Technologies is a prominent Chinese semiconductor company specializing in AI processors, known as Machine Learning Units (MLUs), designed for cloud training and inference. As geopolitical tensions limit China's access to advanced global chip technologies, domestic chipmakers like Cambricon have become critical to China's self-reliance strategy in AI infrastructure.