China’s Cambricon posts record profit as rival to Nvidia

August 28, 2025 (MLN): Chinese semiconductor firm Cambricon posted record profit in the first half of the year, underscoring how local challengers to Nvidia are gaining traction as Beijing looks to boost its domestic industry.

Cambricon is among several companies in China vying to provide an alternative to the American giant when it comes to supplying the chips required to train and run artificial intelligence applications and models.

In the first half of the year, the company reported revenue surging more than 4,000% year-on-year to 2.88 billion Chinese yuan ($402.7 million), while net profit hit a record 1.04bn yuan.

The figures remain small compared to Nvidia, which reported $44bn of revenue in its February to April quarter.

The U.S. tech giant is due to release its fiscal second-quarter earnings later today.

Cambricon’s rapid growth highlights how Chinese tech firms are seeking alternatives to Nvidia amid concerns of being cut off from American technology.

Earlier this year, Nvidia was blocked from selling its pared-back H20 chip to China, as CNBC reported.

It has since resumed exports but must share 15% of its revenue from sales to China with the U.S. government.

Reports also suggest that Beijing has been discouraging local firms from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips.

Chinese technology giants have been utilizing both local chips and Nvidia hardware that they have managed to acquire, a trend that has supported companies like Cambricon.

Shares of Cambricon have more than doubled this year, adding over $40bn to its market capitalization, which now stands at around $80 billion, according to S&P Capital IQ.

While Nvidia’s advantage has long stemmed not just from hardware but also from its widely adopted software, Cambricon stated on Wednesday that it is enhancing its software offering and working on next-generation hardware.

Still, China’s Nvidia rivals face significant challenges in catching up.

Their technology remains far behind Nvidia’s, and the longer-term outlook appears even tougher due to export controls that restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking techniques, hindering progress in its domestic AI chip industry.

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