Super investor Zhao Jianping increases holdings! Two major industries will see significant growth in Q1 earnings!

Ask AI · Zhao Jianping increases holdings in storage stocks, what is the deeper meaning behind the investment strategy?

Text | Shang Yang

On March 19, the battle to defend the 4000-point mark in the A-share market began, and high-performing stocks became the main focus of market enthusiasm. Further analysis shows that high-performing stocks are concentrated in specific industry categories; for instance, the disclosed 2025 annual reports indicate that both the storage and AI computing power sectors have achieved rapid growth in performance, with several companies already announcing year-on-year performance doubling in their annual reports.

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Continuous growth in storage and AI computing performance

As of this Thursday, although only 140 A-share companies have officially released their 2025 annual reports, over 3000 companies have already provided performance forecasts or preliminary reports. Statistics show that for the 2025 fiscal year, both AI computing and storage sectors achieved significant growth in performance (see attached table).

Among individual stocks, AI computing concept stock Cambricon completed its official 2025 annual report disclosure on March 13. Benefiting from the sustained rise in demand for computing power in the artificial intelligence industry, the company continues to expand its market due to product competitiveness, facilitating the implementation of AI application scenarios. It achieved an annual operating revenue of 6.497 billion yuan, a substantial year-on-year increase of 453.21%, and successfully turned a profit with a net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.059 billion yuan.

As a leader in AI computing, Zhongji Xuchuang’s preliminary report indicates that the company achieved an operating revenue of 38.24 billion yuan for 2025, a year-on-year increase of 60.25%; the net profit attributable to shareholders reached 10.799 billion yuan, with an increase of 108.81%. The significant performance boost is primarily due to strong investments from end customers in computing power infrastructure, with rapid growth in product shipments, especially the increasing proportion of high-speed optical modules. As product solutions continue to be optimized and operational efficiency improves, the company’s operating revenue and net profit have both seen considerable growth compared to the same period last year.

In the storage sector, Baiwei Storage’s preliminary report indicates a recovery in the storage industry, with significant business growth. In 2025, the company seized the upward opportunities in the industry, vigorously expanded its global top-tier customers, and achieved breakthroughs in market and business growth, significantly boosting product sales. During the reporting period, the company achieved an operating revenue of 11.296 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.72%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 867 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 437.56%.

As the first quarter comes to a close, Peng Zu, the speaker of “Trends in the Great Era,” stated that in the first quarter of this year, both AI computing and storage sectors will continue to maintain high prosperity, with both sectors expected to achieve significant growth. On March 4, Baiwei Storage pre-released its performance for January to February this year, estimating an operating revenue of 4 billion to 4.5 billion yuan during this period, a year-on-year increase of 340% to 395%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was estimated to be 1.5 billion to 1.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 921.77% to 1086.13%. The company stated that the storage industry will enter a highly prosperous cycle in 2026, driven by AI computing and domestic substitution, leading to a continuous rise in DRAM/NAND prices, resulting in significant benefits for the company due to supply exceeding demand.

Industry demand grows exponentially

The high growth in performance in the storage sector is primarily driven by AI demand and the global supply-demand mismatch. On the demand side, the demand for storage from AI servers is exhibiting geometric growth, becoming a core driver of this round of recovery in the storage industry. According to Gartner’s predictions, global AI server shipments are expected to grow by over 180% year-on-year in 2026, with total shipments expected to exceed 1.5 million units. The demand for storage from AI servers is 8 to 10 times that of traditional servers, with total demand for storage chips alone reaching over 12 million units, far exceeding the 8 million units of total global capacity in 2025, resulting in a supply-demand gap of over 30%.

The rigid constraints on the supply side have further exacerbated the tense landscape of the storage market, driving storage chip prices to historical record highs. Currently, the global storage industry inventory cycle has dropped to historical lows, and the supply tightness is expected to continue until 2027.

Compared to the storage sector, the high growth in the AI computing sector is more due to the explosive demand for AI computing power and structural shortages on the supply side. On the demand side, the comprehensive implementation of AI applications is driving an explosive growth in computing power demand, especially with the prevalence of AI agents, shifting the computing power demand from pulsed to sustained. The single-task multi-round invocation and tool interactivity have led to a geometric increase in token consumption, with the domestic token invocation volume reaching 46.9 trillion yuan in a single week in March, far surpassing the U.S. market.

On the supply side, the constraints in the AI computing industry chain are primarily concentrated in core chips and high-end components. For high-end AI chips, international giants like Nvidia and AMD have limited production capacity, and the tight capacity of advanced processes makes it difficult for high-end chip supply to quickly increase; although domestic AI chips are accelerating breakthroughs, with companies like Moore Threads, Muxi Co., and Birran Technology entering the capital market and speeding up commercialization, there still exists a gap in technical maturity and software ecosystem compared to international giants, making it difficult to fill the supply gap in the short term.

Institutional funds are highly attentive

Peng Zu stated that storage has become the most crowded sector for funds within the AI concept. As the annual reports have not yet been fully disclosed, based on the institutional holdings situation at the end of the third quarter of 2025, companies like Zhaoyi Innovation, Northern Huachuang, and Lanke Technology each have over 100 institutional shareholders, with Zhaoyi Innovation’s institutional holdings reaching as high as 531. Moreover, it has been observed that among the top ten shareholders of Zhaoyi Innovation, there is also the presence of well-known investor Ge Weidong, who has continuously held a significant stake in the company for 21 consecutive reporting periods since the end of the third quarter of 2020.

As another storage concept stock, Dongxin Co. also features Zhao Jianping and Zhao Ji among its top ten shareholders. Notably, in the third quarter of 2025, both Zhao Jianping and Zhao Ji increased their holdings in the company, acquiring an additional 70,000 shares and 600,000 shares, respectively (see Figure 1).

In the secondary market, Dongxin Co. has also realized a remarkable upward trend, having cumulatively risen over 200% since the end of July last year (see Figure 2).

Leading companies in computing power like Tianfu Communication, Zhongke Shuguang, Yingweike, and Inspur Information have also garnered significant attention from institutional funds, with the number of institutional shareholders exceeding 100 at the end of the third quarter of 2025. For example, among the top ten shareholders of Tianfu Communication at the end of the third quarter of 2025, seven are from public funds, and it has also received substantial investments from the Hong Kong Central Clearing Limited through the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (see Figure 3).

(The individual stocks mentioned in the text are for example analysis only and are not recommendations for buying or selling.)