Cambricon, one of China’s best-known AI chip designers, said it expects net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.85 billion to 2.15 billion yuan for 2025, marking a year‑on‑year turnaround from losses. The company attributed the improvement to a sharp rise in revenue driven by sustained growth in demand for artificial‑intelligence compute and by successful market expansion of its product line.
The guidance, disclosed in a brief regulatory announcement, frames Cambricon’s progress as part of a broader commercialisation of AI hardware in China. As enterprises and cloud providers scale up large model deployment and inference, demand for dedicated accelerators has climbed, giving domestic chip designers more opportunities to convert R&D into sales and deployed systems.
Cambricon’s statement points to two immediate drivers: stronger end‑market demand for compute and an ability to push products into real applications. For international readers, that combination—rising volumes plus demonstrable product competitiveness—suggests the company is moving beyond proof‑of‑concepts into repeatable commercial contracts, a necessary step for sustainable profitability in the chip sector.
The development is also significant politically and strategically. Beijing’s emphasis on AI self‑reliance and the need to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers have funneled attention, customers and often favourable procurement choices to domestic suppliers. That policy backdrop amplifies the commercial upside for local AI silicon firms but also intensifies competition among them.
Caveats remain. Turning a profit in one year does not immunise Cambricon against margin pressure, customer concentration, or the capital intensity of chip design and software ecosystem development. The company will need to sustain sales growth, secure stable manufacturing capacity and continue investing in software, systems integration and partnerships to maintain momentum against both global incumbents and rising local rivals.
For investors and industry watchers, Cambricon’s forecast is a useful barometer of China’s AI hardware market: it indicates that at least some domestic chip vendors are reaching the scale required to turn R&D investments into operating profits. Whether that translates into durable market share and export opportunities will depend on execution, supply‑chain resilience and the competitive dynamics of AI compute worldwide.