Chinese Chip Firms Post Record Revenue as US Export Curbs Accelerate Domestic AI Boom

China's domestic semiconductor industry is posting record financial results, with leading chipmakers reporting revenue growth that underscores how US export restrictions have paradoxically accelerated the development of a homegrown chip ecosystem. The latest earnings from SMIC, Moore Threads, and ChangXin Memory Technology paint a picture of an industry that is scaling rapidly despite, and in some cases because of, Western efforts to constrain its access to advanced technology.

SMIC: Foundry Revenue Hits $9.3 Billion

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China's largest contract chipmaker, reported annual revenue of $9.3 billion, a 16 percent increase over the prior year and a new record for the company. SMIC's management has projected that revenue will climb further to approximately $11 billion in 2026, driven by surging domestic demand for AI-capable chips and the steady expansion of its manufacturing capacity.

While SMIC remains several technology generations behind leading foundries like TSMC and Samsung, the company has focused on maximizing output at mature and mid-range process nodes where it can serve the Chinese market without relying on restricted extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment. The strategy has proven commercially successful, as Chinese fabless chip designers increasingly turn to domestic foundries to reduce supply chain risk.

Moore Threads: GPU Revenue Surges 231-247 Percent

Moore Threads, a Chinese GPU startup that has positioned itself as a domestic alternative to NVIDIA, reported year-over-year revenue growth of 231 to 247 percent. The company has benefited from a wave of demand from Chinese cloud providers and AI companies that have been cut off from purchasing NVIDIA's most advanced data center GPUs under US export rules.

Moore Threads' products do not match the performance of NVIDIA's top-tier accelerators, but they have found a receptive market among Chinese customers who need GPU compute capacity and have limited alternatives. The company has also invested heavily in its software ecosystem, building out compatibility layers and developer tools designed to make it easier for customers to migrate workloads from NVIDIA platforms.

ChangXin Memory: Revenue Doubles to $8 Billion

ChangXin Memory Technology, China's leading DRAM manufacturer, posted a 130 percent revenue jump to approximately 55 billion yuan, or roughly $8 billion. The growth reflects both expanding production volumes and rising prices for memory chips driven by intense global demand for AI infrastructure. DRAM is a critical component in AI servers, and ChangXin has been working to increase its share of the domestic market as Chinese data center operators seek to reduce dependence on imports from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.

The Export Control Paradox

The financial results highlight what analysts have described as the paradox of US export controls. While the restrictions have succeeded in limiting Chinese access to the most advanced chip manufacturing equipment and highest-performance AI accelerators, they have simultaneously created powerful incentives for Chinese firms and the Chinese government to invest heavily in building domestic alternatives.

Beijing has responded to export controls with massive state-backed funding programs, including the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, which has deployed tens of billions of dollars to support domestic chip companies. The combination of guaranteed domestic demand, government subsidies, and the urgency created by supply chain restrictions has produced growth rates that would be exceptional in any market.

Outlook

Industry observers expect the trend to continue through 2026 and beyond. Chinese AI companies are building large-scale training clusters using domestically produced hardware, and the feedback loop between chip demand and domestic supply is tightening. While a significant technology gap remains between Chinese and Western chipmakers at the leading edge, the revenue trajectory suggests that China's semiconductor industry is building commercial scale at a pace that few analysts predicted even two years ago.