In the first half of the year, benefiting from the surge in demand for AI computing power, the optical communication equipment industry handed over an impressive semi-annual report card. As of August 26, 62 of the 89 A-share listed companies in the Shenwan Communications Equipment Division have disclosed their 2026 semi-annual reports. Leading companies in the optical communication sector, such as optical modules, optical devices, and optical fiber cables, have generally achieved both revenue and profit increases. The acceleration of AI computing infrastructure construction has become the core driving the upward trend in the optical communications industry. As large-scale intelligent computing centers continue to expand, demand for high-speed optical modules, optical devices, and optical transmission networks is still growing rapidly. The domestic optical communication midstream manufacturing sector is leading the world and can meet current industrial upgrading needs, but there are shortcomings in some of the upstream core links, which have become bottlenecks limiting the high-end development of the industry. Some analysts point out that with the large-scale implementation of CPO switches, profits and demand for traditional optical module assembly will decline, and demand for core materials such as indium phosphide, silicon SOI wafers, and thin-film lithium niobate will increase dramatically. In the future, domestic and foreign optical communication companies may extend their layout upstream along the “optical chip-epitaxial wafer-substrate material” route to lock in production capacity.

In the first half of the year, benefiting from the surge in demand for AI computing power, the optical communication equipment industry handed over an impressive semi-annual report card. As of August 26, 62 of the 89 A-share listed companies in the Shenwan Communications Equipment Division have disclosed their 2026 semi-annual reports. Leading companies in the optical communication sector, such as optical modules, optical devices, and optical fiber cables, have generally achieved both revenue and profit increases. The acceleration of AI computing infrastructure construction has become the core driving the upward trend in the optical communications industry. As large-scale intelligent computing centers continue to expand, demand for high-speed optical modules, optical devices, and optical transmission networks is still growing rapidly. The domestic optical communication midstream manufacturing sector is leading the world and can meet current industrial upgrading needs, but there are shortcomings in some of the upstream core links, which have become bottlenecks limiting the high-end development of the industry. Some analysts point out that with the large-scale implementation of CPO switches, profits and demand for traditional optical module assembly will decline, and demand for core materials such as indium phosphide, silicon SOI wafers, and thin-film lithium niobate will increase dramatically. In the future, domestic and foreign optical communication companies may extend their layout upstream along the “optical chip-epitaxial wafer-substrate material” route to lock in production capacity.