AI Chipmaker Cambricon’s Sales Miss in Sign of Output Constraint

Cambricon Technologies Corp. reported a slower-than-expected revenue growth in a reflection of its persistent challenges with manufacturing constraints and memory chip shortages.

Revenue in the quarter ended September jumped 105% to 3.53 billion yuan ($529 million), versus estimates for about 6.26 billion yuan. The company posted a 148% rise in net income to 1.4 billion yuan.

The Beijing-based chipmaker is one of several homegrown firms seeking to fill a void left by Nvidia Corp. after Washington slapped export restrictions on its most advanced chips to curb China’s AI advances. Beijing has also limited the number of older-generation of Nvidia chips allowed for sale in the country to drive greater semiconductor self-sufficiency.

Cambricon has been expanding the use of its products, supporting the operation of AI models developed by local frontier labs including DeepSeek and Moonshot. It’s also increasingly serving enterprise clients in financial services, energy and retail.

While Cambricon and industry leader Huawei Technologies Co. benefit from rising AI computing demand, they’re also grappling with constraints on multiple fronts. Cambricon has shed about half its market value since shares notched an all-time high in June, after the country’s broader AI rally lost steam.

Many chip designers are struggling with limited supplies of the high-bandwidth memory packaged side-by-side with AI accelerators and manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. US-led sanctions restrict foreign companies from selling to Chinese clients, whose domestic stockpiles of HBMs are running down.

Cambricon and Huawei also rely on local foundries such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. They’re in turn denied access to high-end extreme ultraviolet lithography tools from ASML Holding NV, which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp. use to make their most advanced AI chips.