(Yicai) March 13 -- Cambricon Technologies, a leading Chinese maker of artificial intelligence chips, reported its first annual profit since going public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2020.

Net profit was CNY2.1 billion (USD300 million) in 2025, compared with a net loss of CNY455.8 million (USD66.1 million) in 2024, the Beijing-based company said in its annual financial statement yesterday. Revenue surged 453 percent to CNY6.5 billion.

The global AI industry entered a rapid growth phase last year, with demand for computing power increasing swiftly, Cambricon noted. Leveraging its advancements in AI chip products, foundational software platforms, and cluster software tools, the company's products were deployed at scale across several key industries, including telecommunications, finance, and internet, it added.

Cambricon invested nearly CNY1.2 billion in research and development last year, up 9 percent from 2024, with the proportion of R&D investment to revenue dropping to 18 percent from 91 percent because the revenue growth outpaced that of R&D investment.

In the fourth quarter, Cambricon's net profit shrank 20 percent to CNY454.6 million from the third quarter, marking the second consecutive quarter-on-quarter decline, after a 17 percent drop in the third quarter. Revenue rose 9.4 percent to CNY1.9 billion in the period.

Cambricon [SHA: 688256] closed 0.3 percent down at CNY1,096.10 (USD158.94) today, after earlier gaining as much as 2.6 percent. The company was briefly the Chinese mainland's highest stock last August.

Editor: Futura Costaglione