A 50 million yuan investment has generated returns of more than 600 times.

Since the beginning of this year, the "shovel sellers" on the AI dividend track have been ushering in a collective realization of returns, and optical modules are exactly one of the most prominent main lines among them.

Not long ago, leading optical module manufacturer Innolight landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a size of HK$980 per share and a maximum fundraising of about HK$545 billion, instantly taking the title of the largest IPO on the Hong Kong stock market this year. Coincidentally, its core test equipment supplier "Link Instruments" was also exposed by Bloomberg to be in preliminary discussions with potential advisors on the secondary H-share listing.

This company's limelight is no less than that of Innolight. It was not listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board until April 24 this year, with an issue price of only 81.88 yuan. In less than two months, its stock price soared to a maximum of 2777.77 yuan. Later, affected by the overall correction of the technology sector, the stock price fell back somewhat, but as of the close on August 7, it still firmly occupied the throne of the "A-share highest per-share price stock king" at a price of 2220 yuan per share.

It is also worth mentioning that on the same day the news of the secondary listing came out, Link Instruments released a semi-annual performance forecast that was enough to make the market boil: it is estimated that the net profit attributable to owners for the first half of 2026 will be 510 million yuan to 580 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 801.96% to 925.75%.

On one side is the expectation of capital operation for secondary listing, on the other side is the performance realization of 9-fold profit growth, plus the grand narrative of AI computing power behind it — under the interweaving of the three factors, Link Instruments, which is already at a high position, is destined to attract much attention for its subsequent trend.

At the other end of this carnival, a group of early-stage investors before IPO have quietly counted their returns. Although they are still in the lock-up period at present, according to the conversion of the current stock price, the floating profit is already very amazing. Especially the first batch of angel institutions that bet on this company as early as 2019 now hold a book return of more than 600 times.

105 Days After Listing: From "High-Yield New Share" to "Per-Share Price King"

Let's go back to April 24, 2026.

On that day, Link Instruments was officially listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, with an issue price of 81.88 yuan per share and a P/E ratio of 63.64 times at issuance, which was much higher than the 41.99 times P/E ratio of the same industry. This was already a "high-priced new share", but the market proved with actions that the issue price was still set too low.

On the first day of listing, the stock price of Link Instruments hit a maximum of 859.88 yuan during the intraday trading, and finally closed at 799 yuan, with an increase of 875.82%. Calculated at the highest intraday price, the maximum floating profit for one lot is about 389,000 yuan, making it the second largest "high-yield new share" after Muxi Co., Ltd. since the full implementation of the registration system in the A-share market.

Just 5 trading days later, on April 30, the stock price of Link Instruments broke through the 1,000 yuan mark, becoming the new share that reached the "thousand-yuan share" status the fastest in the history of A-shares.

Shortly after, on May 18, the stock price once surged to 1361.00 yuan per share during intraday trading, directly surpassing Kweichow Moutai, which had dominated the ranking for a long time, and taking the position of "A-share per-share price king". On the same day, the company issued its first stock price change announcement after listing, warning that "there is a risk of a rapid pullback caused by excessively rapid short-term rise".

However, this warning announcement failed to stop the capital from chasing this new share. On June 25, the company's stock price hit an all-time high of 2777.77 yuan per share during intraday trading, with a total market value exceeding 280 billion yuan. So far, Link Instruments has achieved an astonishing increase of about 32 times in only 41 trading days.

However, since mid-July, with the overall correction of the technology sector, Link Instruments has entered a downward trend of volatility. As of the close on August 7, the company's stock price was reported at 2220 yuan per share, and the market value fell back to 227.92 billion yuan. Even so, starting from the issue price of 81.88 yuan, the increase has still reached an astonishing 26 times after only 105 days of listing. On the same day, Yuanjie Technology closed at 1355.5 yuan per share, and Link Instruments firmly occupied the throne of "stock king" with an advantage of more than 864 yuan.

It is certain that this crazy journey of Link Instruments is destined to become the most unignorable footnote of the A-share market this year.

Founded by PhD from Zhejiang University, Standing at the AI Computing Power Outlet

Behind the crazy stock price is that Link Instruments stands at the key node of the optical module industry chain required for AI computing power.

In the past year, the explosion of AI computing power has directly pushed high-speed optical modules to the forefront of the market. The two leading optical module manufacturers, Innolight and Eoptolink, have almost replicated the stock price curve of NVIDIA. As the core supplier of the above enterprises, Link Instruments naturally also enjoyed this upward dividend.

According to the company's previous prospectus, Link Instruments is one of the few manufacturers in the world and very few in China that mass-produce and supply core test instruments for 400G, 800G and 1.6T high-speed optical modules, and the second manufacturer in the world to launch all core test instruments for 1.6T optical modules with the highest level in the industry at present.

It is also worth mentioning that Link Instruments' business is in a very special position in the optical module industry chain: with the speed upgrade of each generation of optical modules, the core test equipment on the production line has to be completely replaced, and the next generation of products cannot be compatible through software upgrades. In other words, this is a business of "reselling a full set of products for every generation upgrade".

The builder of this "shovel-clamping" business is Hu Haiyang, a PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Hu Haiyang, born in Xi'an in 1973, graduated from the major of Optical Technology and Optoelectronic Instruments of Zhejiang University in 1996, and later obtained a doctorate degree in Optical Engineering from Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After graduating with a doctorate, he joined Agilent Technologies (later spun off into Keysight Technologies), the absolute giant in the global electronic test and measurement industry, and worked there for 15 years. From application engineer to laboratory director, and then to senior technical consultant, Hu Haiyang once won the highest employee award "Presidential Award" in the enterprise.

There, he saw the world's top test and measurement technology, and also deeply understood the pain point that China was "stuck in the neck" in this field. So in March 2017, with the idea of breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign technology enterprises in the field of high-end test instruments, he registered and established Link Instruments in Suzhou High-tech Zone.

In the first four years, Link Instruments successively released a number of products such as 100G bit error analyzer, single-mode and multi-mode optical attenuator, 400G PAM4 bit error analyzer, CoC optical chip aging test system, and optical chip KGD sorting test system, with the order amount successfully exceeding 100 million yuan.

In 2022, the 50GHz sampling oscilloscope equipped with Link's self-developed chip was officially mass-produced and adopted by optical module manufacturers such as Innolight and Eoptolink. It was also from this year that Link Instruments officially became the "preferred solution" for these leading customers.

Of course, what impresses the secondary market about Link Instruments is not only the story, but also the solid performance.

According to the prospectus, in 2025, the company's operating revenue and net profit attributable to owners were 1.194 billion yuan and 174 million yuan respectively, while its net profit attributable to owners in the first quarter of this year has reached 119 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 515.17%. Not long ago, the company released its semi-annual performance forecast, which estimated that the net profit attributable to owners in the first half of 2026 would be 510 million yuan to 580 million yuan. Based on this calculation, the net profit attributable to owners of the company in the second quarter of this year is expected to be at least 391 million yuan, a month-on-month increase of 228.57%.

Angel Institutions' Book Floating Profit Exceeds 600 Times

Compared with retail investors in the secondary market, the primary market investment institutions that have accompanied Link Instruments all the way are the biggest winners behind this wealth creation myth.

The most notable one is Bridge Capital, which entered in the first round of investment.

In March 2019, Link Instruments completed its angel round of financing. Bridge Capital invested 7.2 million yuan through its subsidiary Bridge Fukai, with a post-investment valuation of 180 million yuan. Subsequently, the institution made two additional investments in 2021 and 2022 respectively, with a total investment of about 50 million yuan in three rounds.

Up to now, Bridge Capital has held a total of 3.91% of the shares of Link Instruments through Nanshan Bridge and Bridge Fukai, corresponding to a market value of 8.912 billion yuan. The book floating profit of the first round of investment even exceeds 600 times. At this stage, the institutions that took shares together with Bridge Capital also include Yida Capital, Fengqiao Emerging Industry Fund under Suzhou High-tech Group.

In addition to the above institutions, the book returns of Xinding Guorui that entered in the Series A round, Jingu Huifeng that entered in the Series B round, Xingcheng Capital, SMIC PE, and Huafeng Test & Control that entered in the Series B+ round, as well as GYIC Fund, Yongxin Ark, and China New Holdings that entered in the Series C round, range from at least tens of times to hundreds of times.

However, these numbers are only "paper wealth" at present. According to the rules of the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, the lock-up period for institutional shareholders is 12 months from the date of the company's listing, which means that the sale restriction window will not open until April 2027. But for early-stage institutions, the current problem of Link Instruments is no longer "whether it can make money", but "when to sell and how much to sell". As for the answer to the question, it depends on how long the narrative of AI computing power can last.

A reference data is that according to the current general judgment in the industry, the high prosperity of AI computing power will last at least until 2027-2028, and the capital expenditure of the optical module industry chain and the replacement cycle of test equipment may be in the same frequency as this round of cycle.

This article is from the WeChat official account "ChinaVenture", author: Wang Manhua, editor: Wang Qingwu, published with authorization from 36Kr.