# Cambricon Technologies (688256.SHG)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/688256.SHG

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z. Financial observations: FY2017–FY2025.

Listing currency: CNY. Reporting currency: CNY.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: CNY 897.17 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 1 revenue decline in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 9 years

- Years with declining revenue: 1

- Years with a net loss: 8

- Operating margin variation: 2.37×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -48.54×

- FY2018: -0.35×

- FY2019: -2.65×

- FY2020: -0.95×

- FY2021: -1.14×

- FY2022: -1.82×

- FY2023: -1.23×

- FY2024: -0.39×

- FY2025: 0.32×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 6.1pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: -21.2%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -66.8%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 6.1 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 59.2%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 53.1%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 2

- Capital spending / revenue: 39.0%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -32.5%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -909.3%

- FY2018: -6.4%

- FY2019: -23.4%

- FY2020: -20.8%

- FY2021: -21.2%

- FY2022: -42.0%

- FY2023: -66.8%

- FY2024: -13.0%

- FY2025: 31.1%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: CNY -1.4B

- Net income, five-year total: CNY -1.3B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 40.3%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -191.8 pp

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: CNY -1.0B

- FY2022: CNY -1.3B

- FY2023: CNY -700M

- FY2024: CNY -480M

- FY2025: CNY 2.1B

### management: fail

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -23.4% vs -13.0%

- Per-share earnings: -1.06 to -1.10 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 0.7%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 0.7%

- Per-share value change: CNY -0.05

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: CNY -1.06

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: CNY -1.10

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -1.00

- Average buyback yield: 0.2%

- Buyback history: 3 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- ROIC, first three-year median: -23.4%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -13.0%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: CNY -1.06

- FY2018: CNY -0.11

- FY2019: CNY -3.27

- FY2020: CNY -1.07

- FY2021: CNY -2.07

- FY2022: CNY -3.15

- FY2023: CNY -2.07

- FY2024: CNY -1.10

- FY2025: CNY 4.90

### accounting: fail

- Sloan accruals exceed 10%

- earnings not backed by cash

- Sloan accruals: 19.0%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.41×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: No

- Operating cash / earnings: -0.24×

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.02×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -60.5%

- FY2018: 0.5%

- FY2019: -20.9%

- FY2020: -4.1%

- FY2021: 0.7%

- FY2022: 1.3%

- FY2023: -5.2%

- FY2024: 17.4%

- FY2025: 19.0%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 44% since Jun 2026 · sales +453.2%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:57.611Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-08-27: China's 'little Nvidia' Cambricon sees 4,348% revenue surge amid AI frenzy ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-little-nvidia-cambricon-sees-093000206.html))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +453.2%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: CNY 7.8M 

- FY2018: CNY 117M 

- FY2019: CNY 444M 

- FY2020: CNY 459M 

- FY2021: CNY 721M 

- FY2022: CNY 729M 

- FY2023: CNY 709M 

- FY2024: CNY 1.2B 

- FY2025: CNY 6.5B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 53.1%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: 100.0% 

- FY2018: 99.9% 

- FY2019: 67.7% 

- FY2020: 63.5% 

- FY2021: 59.2% 

- FY2022: 39.4% 

- FY2023: 51.4% 

- FY2024: 53.9% 

- FY2025: 53.1% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in semiconductors; annual sales are CNY 6.5 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); FY2025: revenue 6497196198; grossProfit 3449527347; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); 688256.SHG: Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited engages in the research, development, design, and sale of core AI chips for terminal devices in China. The company offers cloud-based intelligent chips and boards, intelligent complete machines, edge intelligence chips and boards, and related supporting basic system software. It also provides smart accelerator cards, including the Siyuan 370 and Siyuan 270 series; intelligent computing modules comprising the Siyuan 220 module; terminal intelligent processor IP, which consists of Cambricon-1M and Cambricon-1H; and software development platforms, such as the Cambricon NeuWare and MagicMind. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Beijing, China.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 51.4% to 53.9% during 2023–25; it lost 21.2% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 51.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 53.9%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 53.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); 9-year return on capital observations [[2017,-9.092640030549724],[2018,-0.06394273774243996],[2019,-0.23428909100004094],[2020,-0.20762038844768557],[2021,-0.21242348735541178],[2022,-0.41974363634943235],[2023,-0.6677334845677422],[2024,-0.1296109002946664],[2025,0.3111160792626114]]; median -0.21242348735541178. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Spends 20.5% of cash earnings on expansion; earns 40.3% on new investment.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); FY2025: growth capex 422876969; upkeep 145820919; owner earnings 2058730667.63. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.20540664966477318.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); Incremental return on capital 0.40340743200786666, from the economics test's unchanged annual inputs.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); Dividend observations: [[2017,0],[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,82795],[2025,4116823]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 53.8% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); 688256.SHG SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 53.84100000000001 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 58.1 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:44.591Z); Closing price 897.17 CNY; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 15.454781199066414; price multiple 58.051290952873266. FY2025 cash earnings/share 4.897071143676362. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (CNY per share)

- 2020-08: CNY 114.09 per share

- 2020-09: CNY 107.51 per share

- 2020-10: CNY 125.56 per share

- 2020-11: CNY 111.60 per share

- 2020-12: CNY 98.51 per share

- 2021-01: CNY 103.09 per share

- 2021-02: CNY 96.66 per share

- 2021-03: CNY 94.56 per share

- 2021-04: CNY 74.96 per share

- 2021-05: CNY 79.63 per share

- 2021-06: CNY 92.75 per share

- 2021-07: CNY 67.21 per share

- 2021-08: CNY 59.50 per share

- 2021-09: CNY 53.44 per share

- 2021-10: CNY 51.42 per share

- 2021-11: CNY 64.83 per share

- 2021-12: CNY 63.83 per share

- 2022-01: CNY 52.87 per share

- 2022-02: CNY 53.38 per share

- 2022-03: CNY 42.75 per share

- 2022-04: CNY 34.81 per share

- 2022-05: CNY 37.99 per share

- 2022-06: CNY 43.42 per share

- 2022-07: CNY 40.94 per share

- 2022-08: CNY 39.66 per share

- 2022-09: CNY 42.07 per share

- 2022-10: CNY 44.13 per share

- 2022-11: CNY 42.56 per share

- 2022-12: CNY 36.62 per share

- 2023-01: CNY 41.68 per share

- 2023-02: CNY 56.36 per share

- 2023-03: CNY 124.80 per share

- 2023-04: CNY 167.45 per share

- 2023-05: CNY 170.60 per share

- 2023-06: CNY 126.17 per share

- 2023-07: CNY 110.07 per share

- 2023-08: CNY 106.58 per share

- 2023-09: CNY 83.19 per share

- 2023-10: CNY 71.97 per share

- 2023-11: CNY 100.54 per share

- 2023-12: CNY 90.58 per share

- 2024-01: CNY 73.83 per share

- 2024-02: CNY 113.19 per share

- 2024-03: CNY 116.42 per share

- 2024-04: CNY 115.03 per share

- 2024-05: CNY 117.31 per share

- 2024-06: CNY 133.34 per share

- 2024-07: CNY 177.22 per share

- 2024-08: CNY 172.28 per share

- 2024-09: CNY 194.07 per share

- 2024-10: CNY 304.43 per share

- 2024-11: CNY 376.51 per share

- 2024-12: CNY 441.61 per share

- 2025-01: CNY 383.89 per share

- 2025-02: CNY 493.58 per share

- 2025-03: CNY 418.12 per share

- 2025-04: CNY 472.21 per share

- 2025-05: CNY 405.14 per share

- 2025-06: CNY 403.69 per share

- 2025-07: CNY 476.17 per share

- 2025-08: CNY 1,001.67 per share

- 2025-09: CNY 889.26 per share

- 2025-10: CNY 922.82 per share

- 2025-11: CNY 893.29 per share

- 2025-12: CNY 909.77 per share

- 2026-01: CNY 844.89 per share

- 2026-02: CNY 790.60 per share

- 2026-03: CNY 659.73 per share

- 2026-04: CNY 1,140.91 per share

- 2026-05: CNY 1,310.00 per share

- 2026-06: CNY 1,595.55 per share

- 2026-07: CNY 1,106.00 per share

- 2026-08: CNY 1,112.18 per share

- 2026-09: CNY 1,009.01 per share

- 2026-10: CNY 964.70 per share

## Annual estimated value (CNY per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.

## Reported holder observations