Chinese chipmakers post record 2025 revenue driven by AI demand and US export controls

Chinese semiconductor companies reported record revenue in 2025, supported by demand linked to artificial intelligence (AI) and by efforts to adapt to US export restrictions. SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, said 2025 revenue rose 16% year-over-year to a record $9.3 billion. LSEG analysts estimate that revenue could exceed $11 billion this year.

Other firms also posted strong results. Hua Hong, a domestic memory-chip maker, reported record Q4 2025 revenue of $659.9 million. Moore Threads, a company aiming to compete with Nvidia, forecast 2025 revenue of about CNY 1.45–1.52 billion (about $209.8–219.9 million), up 231% to 247% from 2024.

Key drivers: AI demand and EV-related chips

Analysts cited multiple factors behind the industry’s growth. Paul Triolo, a senior analyst at the Albright Stonebridge Group, said the expansion of electric vehicles and related infrastructure has supported demand for general-purpose chips. At the same time, demand for advanced chips has surged as AI adoption accelerates.

US export controls spur domestic substitution

US export controls designed to limit China’s access to key technologies have also pushed domestic semiconductor development. Parv Sharma, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that while China lags in top-end GPU performance, domestic solutions are helping fill the computational gap at home and contributing to record revenue.

Sharma added that export restrictions on Nvidia chips have prompted Beijing to encourage domestic alternatives.

Memory chips: revenue surge amid global supply tightness

The memory-chip sector has benefited from the role memory plays in AI data centers and consumer electronics. Memory chips are in global short supply, contributing to unprecedented revenue growth.

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), one of China’s leading memory-chip makers, reported revenue up 130% to more than RMB 55 billion ($8 billion). The global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market is dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.

Export restrictions on HBM to China have created opportunities for CXMT, even though its technology lags leading manufacturers, according to Phelix Lee, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Lee said CXMT is becoming the only domestic alternative.

Longer-term know-how gains

Triolo said that experience gained from memory-chip production could support progress in other chip types, including GPUs. He noted that China’s memory-chip plants are effectively incubators for advanced processing technology, including in ways that were not possible before US export controls took effect in October 2022.

Challenges remain: technology access and production scale

Despite record revenue, China’s semiconductor industry still faces significant challenges. Triolo said Chinese firms have not kept pace with technology capabilities relative to peers in the United States, Korea, Europe and Taiwan. He added that SMIC and Hua Hong still cannot mass-produce the world’s most advanced chips at the scale of TSMC because they cannot access the most advanced tools produced by ASML in the Netherlands.

Triolo also said US export controls continue to exert heavy pressure on Chinese semiconductor companies. He noted that domestic alternatives are becoming more common in smaller segments, but not across the board.

“China is the only country trying to rebuild most of the semiconductor supply chain, and that, of course, is quite challenging; it will take longer to overcome US controls in key areas,” Triolo said.