AI giant Chen Tianshi, as a co-founder of the chip company Cambricon Technologies, saw his net worth soar to $10 billion in 2024. This surge followed Cambricon's listing in Shanghai, where its stock price skyrocketed by 500% in a short period. However, despite this, market analysts remain cautious about the future trajectory of the company's stock.
According to the latest data, as of January 15, 2024, Cambricon Technologies reached a market capitalization of 291 billion yuan (approximately $40 billion), making it the second-largest listed company on China's ChiNext board. Although Cambricon's stock price rose by 7.3% in the first two weeks of 2025, it then fell by 17% in just one day, ultimately closing down by 11.5%. Analysts point out that increased competition from the United States, especially following the visit of NVIDIA co-founder Jensen Huang to Shenzhen, has heightened investor concerns.
Jensen Huang is currently the tenth richest person in the world, with a fortune of $119 billion. He opposes new U.S. restrictions on chip exports, arguing that these measures will affect America's leadership in the global market and negatively impact economic growth. Many Chinese internet giants, such as Alibaba and ByteDance, are stockpiling NVIDIA's graphics processing units (GPUs) for AI development.
Some investors believe that Cambricon Technologies has the potential to become China's "NVIDIA." Since its initial public offering in 2020, the company has not achieved annual profitability, partly due to high R&D expenses. Nevertheless, Cambricon's price-to-earnings ratio remains as high as 340, while NVIDIA's is only 30. Dickie Wong, Executive Director of Research in Hong Kong, stated that Cambricon's valuation "is clearly a huge bubble," suggesting that investor optimism about its AI business may be overly aggressive.
Cambricon's founder, Chen Tianshi, is a prodigy who was admitted to Anhui University at the age of 16 and obtained a PhD in Computer Science in 2010 before joining the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He founded Cambricon Technologies in 2016 and dedicated himself full-time to the company in 2019. Although his technical capabilities still lag behind NVIDIA, Chen's team is working hard to customize products for the Chinese market to meet the needs of local enterprises.
Looking ahead, Cambricon expects its sales to grow by 69.2% year-on-year in 2024, but whether it can break through in an increasingly competitive domestic environment remains a challenge.
