Stock Price Surges Over 10x, Founder's Wealth Skyrockets Over 20x: Why Did Yuanjie Technology Become the 8th Four-Digit Stock in A-Share History

Kechuangban Daily, March 22nd (Reporter: Huang Xiumi) — Surpassing “Cold King” and approaching Moutai, optical communication chip developer Yuanjie Technology’s stock price continues to hit new highs.

On March 20th, Yuanjie Technology surged 17.37%, pushing its stock price above 1,000 yuan for the first time, setting a new record high. It became the second stock on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board after Cambrian to reach 1,000 yuan, and the eighth in A-shares history.

At this time last year (March 20, 2025), Yuanjie Technology was only ranked 65th in the A-share market, with a price far below high-priced stocks like North China Huachuang and BYD. Based on the March 20, 2025 closing price (127.05 yuan/share), Yuanjie Technology’s cumulative increase over the past year was nearly 800%. As of the close on March 20 this year, its latest stock price was 1,114.99 yuan/share, with a total market value of 95.8 billion yuan.

This company, widely regarded by the market as the “seller of shovels” in the AI computing power era, how did it gradually become the eighth stock in A-shares history to reach 1,000 yuan?

(Chart: Yuanjie Technology’s latest stock price and historical price trend)

Breaking into the A-share “front runner” in three years

Yuanjie Technology’s main business is the research, design, production, and sales of optical chips, covering products from 2.5G to 50G indium phosphide laser chips. The company has established a full-process IDM system, including chip design, wafer manufacturing, chip processing, and testing.

Against the backdrop of rapidly growing AI computing power demand, the company has achieved significant growth in the AI data center market, especially in high-power CW laser chips required for silicon photonics solutions.

An industry insider told Kechuangban Daily that, besides the product itself, Yuanjie Technology’s ability to become the eighth stock in A-shares history to hit 1,000 yuan is also related to its adoption of a full-process IDM (vertical integration manufacturing) model.

This process covers the entire chain from chip design, epitaxial growth (MOCVD), wafer manufacturing, grating/optical waveguide processes, to testing and packaging, which is extremely rare among domestic optical chip companies.

“This full-process model offers several advantages: controllable full-process optimization can maximize the performance and reliability of high-power CW lasers to meet the ‘zero failure’ requirement of optical devices in AI data centers; deep customization for top-tier clients can shorten iteration cycles; and key processes are自主, which helps improve yield, control costs, and ensure自主可控 of critical core technologies,” the insider explained.

A domestic private equity fund manager also told Kechuangban Daily that, from an investment perspective, Yuanjie Technology is one of the few companies in A-shares capable of mass-producing high-speed optical chips using an IDM model, with comprehensive chip production lines and adaptability to downstream needs.

In the context of global supply chain security demands, its full-process model plays an important role in the localization of high-end optical chips; from the capital market perspective, it is a “core domestic supplier of optical communication in the AI computing era.”

Thanks to these advantages, and amid surging demand from AI data centers, Yuanjie Technology expects to achieve a net profit attributable to parent company of 175 million to 205 million yuan in 2025, turning profitable from a loss in 2024.

Regarding the reasons for performance changes, Yuanjie Technology stated in its performance brief that in 2025, its data center business grew, increasing its proportion of total revenue. The company’s further product structure optimization, along with higher gross margins for data center products, contributed to a year-over-year increase in net profit.

Financially, Yuanjie Technology’s net profit attributable to parent in 2025 is expected to reach its highest since 2018, having only incurred a loss of over 6 million yuan in 2024, with profits in other years.

Along with performance changes, Yuanjie Technology’s revenue structure has also shifted. Its data center business revenue increased from 15.8% of total revenue in 2022 to 50%, becoming the company’s largest segment, with gross margins around 55%, significantly higher than the 25% in telecom.

Benefiting from booming downstream markets, Yuanjie Technology announced expansion plans on February 9th this year.

First, the company plans to invest about 1.251 billion yuan to build a second-phase R&D and manufacturing base for optoelectronic communication semiconductor chips and devices; second, the company raised net funds of 1.38 billion yuan from its 2022 IPO, with an oversubscription of 399 million yuan, and intends to use 98.62 million yuan of the oversubscribed funds to increase investment in the “50G optical chip industrialization construction project.”

Global optical communication manufacturers are expanding capacity, with EML and InP still as core bottlenecks

Shifting focus to industry development and global market demand.

KeChuangban Daily notes that the reason Yuanjie Technology’s stock price was able to surpass 1,000 yuan on March 20th is closely related to content from NVIDIA’s GTC annual developer conference and the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC) in 2026, where optical communication companies emphasized capacity expansion plans for core devices and materials.

At OFC, Lumentum announced that by the end of 2026, the capacity of electro-absorption modulated lasers (EML) will increase by over 50% compared to 2025. The company has already advanced about 40% of its InP capacity expansion plan and predicts that by 2030, AI data centers’ demand for InP will grow at a CAGR of 85%.

Besides Lumentum, Coherent’s management also outlined plans for “super doubling” of InP capacity between 2026 and 2027. Industry analysts say these statements are key validations, indicating that EML and InP remain bottlenecks for pluggable optical modules.

Guojin Securities believes that, due to the long cycle of EML capacity expansion and the rapid growth in optical module demand driven by AI construction in 2026, there will be a supply gap for EML. Especially, NVIDIA, for strategic reasons, monopolizes EML chip capacity, leading to delivery delays for EML lasers until after 2027, which may accelerate the validation of domestically produced EML chips downstream.

Yuanjie Technology’s core products include EML lasers, and its main technical route currently is InP.

In February this year, Yuanjie Technology also disclosed a fund-raising adjustment, citing LightCounting’s forecast that the global Ethernet optical module market will grow 35% year-over-year to $18.9 billion in 2026, with double-digit growth expected from 2027 to 2030.

The main driver of market growth is the strong demand for high-speed optical modules in AI infrastructure, with rapid downstream demand putting pressure on upstream supply chains, leading to some shortages in optical chips.

Notably, major optical communication companies are working on mass production of ultra-high-speed 1.6T and 3.2T optical modules, which use thin-film lithium niobate technology, a field Yuanjie Technology is preparing for.

Due to the material differences of InP, thin-film lithium niobate is regarded as the next-generation optical communication technology. As an industry investor, Yuanjie Technology participated in the Series A++ financing of JiKe Optical Core in 2024 along with “Three Swordsmen” Zhongji Xuchuang. Previously, Lenovo Star also invested in JiKe Optical Core during its angel and Series A rounds.

JiKe Optical Core is a chip company focusing on thin-film lithium niobate IDM (vertical integration manufacturing) platform, mainly developing high-speed optical communication modulation chips. The strategic layout of these leading optical communication companies offers a glimpse into the frontier development of the industry.

Founder’s wealth increases over 20 times

As Yuanjie Technology’s stock price surpasses 1,000 yuan, market attention also turns to the soaring wealth of its founder.

Looking back, Yuanjie Technology was listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board on December 21, 2022, with an IPO price of 100.66 yuan/share. In just over three years, its stock price has increased more than 10 times.

The value of shares held by founder and actual controller Zhang Xinggang has also risen accordingly. According to the “2026 Hurun Global Rich List” released in March, Zhang Xinggang’s net worth is 8.5 billion yuan, ranking 3,475th.

Born in 1970, Zhang Xinggang holds U.S. citizenship. He graduated from Tsinghua University and earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Southern California. He previously worked as R&D engineer/manager at Luminent and R&D director at Source Photonics. He returned to China in 2013 to establish Yuanjie Technology and led the company to go public on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in 2022.

The prospectus shows that, as a foreign natural person, Zhang Xinggang’s shares in Yuanjie Limited were held by his sister, Zhang Xinying, who participated in the company’s registration.

(Chart: Ownership structure disclosed in Yuanjie Technology’s 2022 prospectus draft)

According to the prospectus, before the IPO, Zhang Xinggang controlled approximately 18.77% of the company directly and indirectly, totaling about 8,444,787 shares. Based on the IPO price of 100.66 yuan/share, this stake was worth about 850 million yuan; at the latest stock price of 1,114.99 yuan/share on March 20, 2026, its value exceeds 9.4 billion yuan.

Similarly, before the IPO, Zhang Xinying held 2.1 million shares (specifically 2,102,895 shares). At the IPO price, this was worth 211 million yuan; at the latest price, over 2.344 billion yuan.

However, according to the latest disclosed shareholding increase on October 22 last year, Zhang Xinggang actually held over 10 million shares (specifically 10,575,438 shares); according to business registration info, Zhang Xinying’s latest holdings are 2.944 million shares (2,944,053 shares).

If neither has reduced holdings since October last year, Zhang Xinggang’s latest total holdings are worth over 11.79 billion yuan; Zhang Xinying’s over 3.28 billion yuan; combined, their total holdings are valued at over 15.07 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that since its founding in 2013, Yuanjie Technology has received support from well-known investors such as Huawei Horizon Investment, Shaanxi State-owned Leading Optoelectronics Fund, and National Development Bank’s Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund.

Currently, only Ningbo Chuangze Cloud Investment Partnership and Shaanxi Leading Optoelectronic Integrated Technology Investment Partnership remain among its top ten shareholders.

But it is clear that these institutional shareholders have reaped substantial gains during Yuanjie Technology’s growth and listing.

(Chart: Latest top ten shareholders of Yuanjie Technology)

The company’s future stock trend is also closely watched, especially its plan to become an “A+H” dual listing company.

On March 6th this year, the company announced plans to issue H-shares overseas and apply for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s main board, aiming to build an international capital operation platform and enhance overseas financing capabilities. The company intends to complete the listing within 24 months at an appropriate window.