Profits in China’s chipmaking sector soar 2,500% in first half amid AI boom

China’s major chip manufacturers saw their profits skyrocket a staggering 2,579.5 per cent in the first half of 2026, fuelled by unprecedented demand for Artificial Intelligence and computing power, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.The state agency attributed the surge to accelerated integration of AI across various fields, which in turn generated massive demand for computing power, according to Yu Weining, chief statistician of the NBS department overseeing industrial statistics.Computing demand also pushed the broader electronics industry’s profits up by 97 per cent year on year, according to Yu, who added that electronics also served as a key driver of the rapid growth of total industrial profits. During the first half, profits for China’s major industrial enterprises – those with an annual revenue of over 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) – grew 18.7 per cent to 4 trillion yuan.