A Nearly 8-Fold Surge in One Year, Can Source Jet Technology Hold Steady at the Thousand Yuan Price Point?

How does AI·Yuanjie Technology’s optical chip technology support AI computing power demands?

On March 20, 2026, the eighth stock in China’s A-shares history to reach a thousand yuan was born.

Yuanjie Technology (688498.SH) surged 17.37%, with its stock price breaking through 1,114.99 yuan, reaching a high of 1,140 yuan during the trading day, surpassing Cambrian (1,025.00 yuan), and ranking second on the A-share price list, only behind Kweichow Moutai (1,445.00 yuan).

That day, about 90% of the over 5,100 stocks in the A-share market declined, with only 21 stocks rising between 10% and 20%.

In the next trading day (March 23, 2026), the Shanghai Composite Index briefly fell below 3,800 points during trading but remained above the 1,000 yuan level, making it one of only two stocks in the A-share market to stay above 1,000 yuan, the other being Kweichow Moutai.

Starting from the closing price on March 20, 2025 (127.05 yuan per share), Yuanjie Technology’s stock price nearly eightfolded in one year, with its market value approaching 1 trillion yuan from hundreds of billions.

Why did this previously little-known company suddenly explode? Is this a short-term hype driven by AI computing power and CPO concepts, or a testament to the strength of domestic hard technology breakthroughs? After reaching the high of over 1,000 yuan, can it stabilize?

Beginning with “Fiber Optic Access”

In early 2013, Yuanjie Technology was established in Shaanxi. Its founder and actual controller is Zhang Xingang, a Chinese-American. He graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor’s degree and holds a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Southern California. Previously, he served as R&D director at SourcePhotonics in the U.S., with over twenty years of experience in optical chip research and manufacturing.

Yuanjie Technology’s main business is the research, design, production, and sales of optical chips. Its key products include 2.5G, 10G, 25G, and higher-speed laser chips, capable of converting electrical signals into optical signals for transmission, mainly used in optical communications such as fiber access, 4G/5G mobile networks, and data centers.

At that time, China was just beginning to promote the “Broadband China” strategy. People might have just heard of “fiber optic transformation” and “fiber-to-the-home,” but the laser chip technology behind it was still a completely unfamiliar concept to the public.

Optical chip technology has high barriers, complex processes, a wide variety of products, and rapid upgrades. Domestic companies mostly entered the market with a lightweight asset approach, starting with easy-to-mass-produce optical modules, which only require packaging of optical chips combined with electrical chips and structural components to form finished products. The entry barrier is low, and the tolerance for errors is high. In contrast, Yuanjie Technology adopted an IDM (vertical integration manufacturing) model, completing the entire process independently, including chip design, wafer manufacturing, chip processing, packaging, and testing. This approach requires heavy investment and slow returns but helps build a strong technological moat.

In its founding year, Yuanjie Technology launched a 2.5G laser chip. This product, which meets the market demand for data upload in fiber access networks, was already mature with established standards. The team leveraged mass production to refine processes, improve yield, and accumulate customer resources. After establishing a solid foundation in the basic market, Yuanjie Technology targeted higher-end products and launched a 10G laser chip in 2016. These two series have long supported the company’s revenue base, accounting for over 80% of revenue in 2021, with shipment volumes ranking among the top domestically.

With the advent of 5G, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 5G commercial licenses in 2019, marking the start of large-scale 5G network construction. That year, Yuanjie Technology launched a 25G laser chip compatible with 5G networks, becoming a supplier for China Mobile’s 5G deployment plans. The gross margin of this series remained above 80% in subsequent years, far exceeding that of basic mass-produced products.

In 2020, with Huawei’s strategic investment, Yuanjie Technology entered Huawei’s supply chain. Coupled with the rapid domestic rollout of 5G, orders for 25G laser chips surged, leading to explosive revenue growth that year. However, this good trend was short-lived. In 2021, due to adjustments in 5G base station frequency band plans, demand for 25G laser chips quickly contracted.

Despite industry cyclicality, Yuanjie Technology continued long-term R&D. The booming development of internet and cloud computing drove demand for data center optical modules. The company gradually expanded into the data center market, launching silicon photonics high-power chips with low power consumption, low noise, and high reliability. Looking back today amid the AI surge, this move was quite forward-looking.

By late 2022, Yuanjie Technology listed on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Its stock mostly traded between 100-200 yuan, with fluctuating performance. In its first year, revenue reached 283 million yuan, with a net profit of 100 million yuan; in the second year, performance declined sharply, with revenue down 48.96% and net profit down 80.58%. In 2024, revenue grew 74.63% year-over-year, but net profit turned into a loss of 6.13 million yuan.

At that time, the optical communication market was in a destocking cycle, which put short-term pressure on the company’s performance. Concerns about “increased revenue but no profit growth” also weighed on valuation, which declined steadily until early April 2025, when the stock price dipped to 87.70 yuan.

Taking Off at the AI Data Center Boom

A trough often signals a turning point.

Starting from April 2025, Yuanjie Technology’s stock price soared, surpassing 1,000 yuan in March 2026. Behind this was the surging demand for high-speed optical modules in AI data centers, with Yuanjie’s early-laid silicon photonics high-power laser chips successfully mass-produced, becoming a new growth driver.

The 2025 earnings report showed revenue of 601 million yuan, up 138.50% year-over-year; net profit of 191 million yuan, turning profitable and setting a record high.

In the long R&D cycle of optical chips, each product iteration requires deep expertise in chip design and manufacturing processes. Innovation in chip structure, materials, fabrication techniques, and equipment is essential to ensure performance and reliability. Yuanjie’s accumulated experience in R&D, design, manufacturing, and its full-process self-sufficiency are significant advantages.

Today, Yuanjie has established a dual-technology layout. In the telecom sector, it enhances control over 2.5G and 10G laser chips to improve yield and stability, while collaborating with domestic and international equipment vendors to develop next-generation 25G and 50G optical chips. In the digital center market, its early investment in silicon photonics high-power chips has paid off, with CW 70mW laser products delivered in bulk, 100G PAM4 EML and CW 100mW laser chips verified, and 200G PAM4 EML products developed and launched.

What truly revalues the market is Yuanjie’s high-end products hitting the right timing. Amid the AI boom, the race for computing power has entered a phase of speed and power consumption competition. Optical modules are evolving from 400G/800G to 1.6T and beyond. As data transfer rates increase and AI training clusters expand, higher demands are placed on power efficiency, heat dissipation, and cost. This requires continuous system optimization for better energy efficiency and more compact packaging.

CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) technology, which achieves higher bandwidth density and lower power consumption through high integration, is seen as a solution for speeds of 1.6T and above. In 2024, the Optical Interconnect Forum (OIF) released the 3.2Tbps CPO standard. Yuanjie has developed a high-energy, low-power CW 300mW chip to meet the demands of CPO and silicon photonics integration.

On March 16, 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang repeatedly mentioned CPO at GTC 2026, unveiling the world’s first fully mass-produced CPO Spectrum-X switch and announcing a vertical expansion strategy using both Kyber (copper cables) and CPO. This marked CPO technology’s entry into large-scale deployment. Driven by this news, CPO concept stocks in the A-share market rallied, including Yuanjie.

Optical chips, as core components of CPO technology, have become a hot spot. Market research firm LightCounting predicts that the optical communication chip market will grow at a CAGR of 17% from 2025 to 2030, with total sales rising from about $3.5 billion in 2024 to over $11 billion in 2030.

As AI technology continues to develop, the demand for computing power will grow exponentially, further boosting optical chip demand. Low power consumption, miniaturization, and integration are key trends for future optical modules, with silicon photonics increasingly used in pluggable modules, especially in high-speed applications.

Capital Never Hesitates to Invest in Innovation

Before Yuanjie Technology, there were seven stocks in China’s A-shares that had reached the “thousand yuan” mark. Now, only Kweichow Moutai and Cambrian remain above 1,000 yuan; others like ZhongAn Tech, YunSai Intelligence, Stone Technology, Hema股份, and Aimeike have fallen below. The main reasons are insufficient core technology barriers, lagging innovation behind industry cycles, crowded sectors, intensified price wars, and weak operational resilience.

Apart from Moutai, nearly all A-share stocks above 1,000 yuan are tech companies. This shows that capital is never stingy with innovation. Truly driving industry leaps are often these technology-driven companies. If we compare Yuanjie’s development path to anyone, Cambrian is the closest.

Founded in 2016, Cambrian reached the capital market in just four years. In contrast, Yuanjie took nine years. In August 2025, Cambrian’s stock price surpassed 1,000 yuan, with fluctuations but generally staying above that level, even surpassing Moutai at times, earning the nickname “King Cambrian.”

Both Cambrian and Yuanjie are companies built on solid technological accumulation, frequently breaking through in product innovation, with P/E ratios significantly above industry averages. The high valuation reflects market confidence not just in current profits but in the potential growth once their technological routes succeed. Yuanjie’s story of core technology and market positioning is quite similar to Cambrian’s. Its advantage in optical chips, the window for domestic technological breakthroughs, and the explosive demand downstream all support its stock price.

To maintain stability in the thousand-yuan range, Yuanjie still faces multiple challenges. On March 21, 2026, Yuanjie issued a statement acknowledging that if product structure optimization falls short of expectations, market competition intensifies, customer concentration is high, R&D costs for new products rise, reliability issues occur, or mass production is hindered, it could impact business performance. Uncertainties also exist in product development progress, customer onboarding, and market supply and demand.

Yuanjie’s CW laser chips are undoubtedly core components of AI data center optical modules, but with a PE ratio exceeding 500, the company’s valuation reflects market high expectations for the optical communication industry chain, which still requires more robust operational results to realize.

In an era where technology defines the future, Yuanjie’s position should not only be on the K-line chart of A-shares but also engraved in the global optical communication and computing power interconnected industry landscape. As for its stock price trend, the answer is best left to time.