August 31, 2026 (InvestinChina.asia) — Metax Integrated Circuit (Shanghai) Co. (688802.SH) on Monday released its first half-year report since listing on the STAR Market in December 2025, posting revenue of 1.32 billion yuan and a return to headline profit, even as its underlying operating performance remained in the red for the six-month period.
The results lay bare both the momentum and the growing pains of China’s domestic GPU champions: Metax’s revenue grew 44.67% year on year to 1.32 billion yuan, with net profit attributable to shareholders swinging to a 612.4 million yuan gain from a 185.9 million yuan loss a year earlier. Yet after stripping out non-recurring items, the company remained 48.9 million yuan in the red — albeit with the quarterly run-rate turning positive in the second quarter, a milestone that signals commercialization is taking hold even as cash generation lags far behind.
Revenue Scales on GPU Shipments; Q2 Marks Inflection Point
Metax attributed the top-line jump to significantly higher GPU shipment volumes, as its products and services gained broader customer recognition and procurement. Gross margin expanded 1.1 percentage points to 57.2%. On a quarterly basis, the company generated 762 million yuan of revenue in the second quarter and achieved 54 million yuan of non-GAAP (ex-non-recurring) net profit, swinging to black from a first-quarter loss — a “phase-one progress” signal in its commercialization trajectory, according to Xinhua Financial.
The company’s next-generation flagship, the Xi Yu C600, entered mass production and delivery as planned in the first half, providing a product pipeline anchor for the coming quarters.
Profit Quality: Headline Number Masks Underlying Loss
The apparent profit surge deserves scrutiny. Net profit turned positive largely on the back of a substantial increase in fair-value gains, with total non-recurring gains reaching 661 million yuan in the period. After excluding those items, Metax still posted a 48.9 million yuan non-GAAP loss — though the deficit narrowed 75.83% from the 202 million yuan gap a year earlier.
In other words, the company’s core GPU business has not yet delivered six-month profitability, but the second-quarter non-GAAP profit marks a clear inflection. The market’s true test will be whether Metax can sustain ex-non-recurring profitability in the second half.
Cash Flow: The Soft Spot
Metax’s operating cash flow told a more cautionary tale, swinging to a net outflow of 1.30 billion yuan from a 883 million yuan outflow a year earlier. The deterioration stemmed primarily from a sharp increase in cash paid for goods and services. Research and development expenses came in at 524.8 million yuan, representing 39.65% of revenue — high by absolute standard, but down 10.11 percentage points as revenue scaled faster than R&D spending.
Peer Comparison: A Three-Speed Domestic Compute Sector
Metax’s report lands in the same earnings window as its two larger domestic counterparts, revealing a sharply divergent picture across China’s homegrown AI compute names:
| Company | H1 Revenue | Rev. YoY | Net Profit | Non-GAAP Profit | Operating Cash Flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hygon (688041) | 9.10 bn | +66.52% | 1.80 bn | 1.63 bn | -428 mn |
| Cambricon (688256) | 6.00 bn | +108.13% | 2.31 bn | 2.17 bn | +311 mn |
| Metax (688802) | 1.32 bn | +44.67% | +612 mn* | -49 mn | -1.30 bn |
*Headline net profit turned positive; underlying non-GAAP still in deficit. Source: respective companies’ H1 2026 reports.
Cambricon stands out as the sector’s profit-quality leader. Its revenue doubled to 6.00 billion yuan, with net profit surging 122.61% to 2.31 billion yuan and non-GAAP profit hitting 2.17 billion yuan — a 137.30% jump. Critically, Cambricon was the only one of the three to post positive operating cash flow, at 311 million yuan, though that figure fell 65.83% from a year earlier as procurement and tax payments increased.
Hygon, the largest by revenue at 9.10 billion yuan, delivered more measured growth: net profit rose 49.69% to 1.80 billion yuan, with non-GAAP profit of 1.63 billion yuan. However, its operating cash flow swung to a 428 million yuan outflow, down 119.64% year on year. The company attributed the swing to aggressive inventory stockpiling — 12.3 billion yuan of “preparation” spending — to secure supply and capture market opportunities amid surging domestic high-end chip demand.
The contrast is stark: Cambricon combines explosive growth with genuine cash generation; Hygon pairs scale leadership with negative but manageable cash flow driven by strategic stockpiling; Metax sits at the earliest commercialization stage, where revenue is scaling but both underlying profit and cash flow remain under water.
What It Means for the Sector
The trio’s reports collectively confirm that demand for domestic AI compute is real and accelerating. All three cite surging demand for domestic high-end chips and AI compute as the primary growth driver. Yet they also expose a maturity gradient:
- Cambricon has crossed into the “scale + profitability + cash generation” phase, though its working capital is tightening;
- Hygon is in “scale + steady profit, but heavy inventory investment” mode, betting on future demand;
- Metax is in “revenue inflection + approaching breakeven” mode, with its Q2 non-GAAP profit marking the first proof point that its GPU business model can work at scale.
Metax’s report is best read as an “early-stage commercialization” story: the direction is unambiguously positive, but the journey from here to sustainable self-funded growth — evidenced by consistent non-GAAP profitability and an eventual turn in operating cash flow — remains the key validation ahead. The company’s exceptionally low debt ratio (total assets 14.71 billion yuan, up 7.58% from year-end) and strong post-IPO balance sheet provide ample runway. But for investors pricing Metax at a premium valuation, the second-half non-GAAP trajectory and cash flow path will be the numbers that matter most.
Metax shares closed at 691.2 yuan on Monday, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately 2.76 trillion yuan.