Raising 8 billion yuan, the AI computing power competition intensifies. Can Sugon seize the opportunity of domestic substitution?
On May 28, Sugon Co., Ltd. issued an announcement stating that its application for issuing convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects has passed the review of the Listing Review Committee of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
It is reported that in February, Sugon announced that it planned to issue convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects, with a total fundraising amount of no more than 8 billion yuan. The funds will be used for the advanced computing power cluster system project for artificial intelligence, the next high - performance AI training and inference all - in - one machine project, and the domestic advanced storage system project. Two months later, the Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted its application for issuing convertible bonds.
As a leading domestic provider of high - performance computing and computing power services, will the issuance of convertible bonds by Sugon further enhance the company's financial strength and promote its development?
Strengthen the Layout of Domestic Computing Power
Data shows that Sugon was established in 2006. Its predecessor was Tianjin Sugon Computer Industry Co., Ltd., which was initiated by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other parties. Relying on the technological accumulation of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the field of high - performance computing, Sugon focuses on the R & D and industrialization of high - end computers. In November 2014, Sugon was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
In its 2025 financial report, Sugon stated that the company focuses on the entire industrial chain of computing power infrastructure. Centering on the R & D, production, and sales of IT equipment such as high - performance computers, general servers, and storage, as well as software development, system integration, and technical services around IT equipment, it continuously expands high - value - added businesses such as cloud computing, data centers, liquid cooling, and computing power services.
From 2009 to 2019, Sugon ranked first in the China HPC (High - Performance Computing) TOP100 list for 10 consecutive years. In June 2019, Sugon was included in the "Entity List" by the US Department of Commerce, and its use of components, software, and services containing US technology was restricted.
In April of the following year, Sugon released a private placement plan, planning to raise 4.78 billion yuan. Among them, 2 billion yuan was used for the R & D and expansion project of high - end computers based on domestic chips; 920 million yuan was used for the R & D and industrialization project of high - end computer IO modules; 480 million yuan was used for the R & D project of built - in active management firmware for high - end computers; and 1.38 billion yuan was used to supplement working capital. In October of the same year, the private placement was completed.
In fact, before being included in the Entity List by the United States, Sugon had been accelerating the layout of independent technologies.
In 2002, Sugon launched the Longteng server based on the "Loongson 1", which was the first domestic server with complete independent intellectual property rights. Its CPU, motherboard, and operating system were all products with independent intellectual property rights. In 2008, Sugon launched a firewall product based on the Loongson 2, truly achieving complete independent intellectual property rights from software to hardware and from the whole machine to the chip. In April 2010, the fully autonomous Sugon Longteng blade server was released. In 2014, Sugon developed the first domestic server, desktop terminal products, and fully autonomous and controllable trusted computing server products based on the domestic "Loongson 3B" processor.
In 2015, Sugon raised 1.4 billion yuan through private placement for the integrated system for environmental quality monitoring, analysis, and early warning, as well as to repay bank loans. Sugon stated that the project would develop the Sugon EQC1000 integrated system for environmental quality monitoring, analysis, and early warning with independent intellectual property rights to achieve "self - control" of key information systems and service platforms in fields such as meteorology and environmental protection.
In 2018, Sugon issued convertible bonds to raise 1.12 billion yuan for the unified architecture distributed storage system. At that time, Sugon mentioned in the announcement that by launching a highly scalable unified architecture distributed storage system product, it aimed to expand its market share in the video surveillance field and make outstanding contributions to the self - control of domestic IT core equipment.
In addition, Sugon also laid out the industrial chain. In 2014, Sugon, Tianjin Haitai Technology Investment, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly established Hygon Information, which focuses on the design of core chips such as domestic architecture CPUs and DCUs. Currently, Sugon holds 27.96% of the equity in Hygon Information and is its largest shareholder.
It is worth mentioning that in May 2025, Sugon and Hygon Information planned a share - swap merger. In December of the same year, the two parties terminated the merger.
Public data shows that Sugon has also invested in several companies such as CAS StarMap, CAS Sanqing, CAS Tianji, and Sugon Digital Technology, covering from upstream server hardware and IO storage to mid - stream cloud computing platforms, big data platforms, computing power service platforms, and downstream cloud service providers.
Thanks to technological autonomy, Sugon has maintained revenue growth even after being included in the "Entity List". From 2019 to 2023, Sugon's revenue growth rates were 5.18%, 6.66%, 10.23%, 15.44%, and 10.34% respectively; the growth rates of net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company were 37.86%, 38.53%, 40.78%, 31.27%, and 18.88% respectively.
Shareholder Reductions and Becoming a Company without a Controlling Shareholder
In 2024, Sugon experienced its first revenue decline since listing, and the growth rate of net profit also slowed down significantly. Its revenue was 13.148 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 8.4%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 1.911 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 4.1%.
Sugon stated in its financial report that during the reporting period, the Sino - US trade war escalated, and industry competition intensified. The company comprehensively sorted out its business lines, re - planned its product positioning, adjusted its marketing strategy, gradually reduced projects with fierce competition and low gross profit, gave full play to the technological and cost advantages of high - end computing technology and integrated solutions, concentrated more resources on the R & D and promotion of high - value - added products and services, and built a differentiated competitive barrier to enhance overall competitiveness and profitability.
In 2025, Sugon returned to growth. Its revenue was 14.964 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 13.81%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 2.176 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 13.87%. This was mainly due to the optimization of the product structure, which improved the profitability of the main business. The company's high - quality assets such as Hygon Information, CAS StarMap, and Sugon Digital Technology, which were laid out along the industrial chain, obtained good investment returns.
Sugon stated that the company is making coordinated efforts in four dimensions: technological breakthroughs, global liquid cooling, industrial ecosystem, and capital layout, continuously promoting the optimization and upgrading of the business structure, and constantly upgrading the high - value - added business model of "hardware + platform + service + operation".
In the field of computing power, Sugon launched the super - node ScaleX640 and the 10,000 - card AI super - cluster, and the first domestic 30,000 - card - level AI computing power pool in the country was successfully put into operation; in terms of the industrial ecosystem, by independently developing upstream and downstream software and hardware, it reduced its dependence on the external supply chain, achieved industry - leading performance and stability in some self - developed software and hardware products, and consolidated the cost advantage of integrated solutions; it also increased technological cooperation with manufacturers in artificial intelligence, storage, and network security, strengthened the adaptation and collaboration between the company's core products and industrial chain manufacturers, and created joint promotion plans for application scenarios.
In the first quarter of 2026, Sugon's revenue was 3.199 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 23.71%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 228 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 22.19%.
However, with stable revenue growth, Sugon's former controlling shareholder has reduced its holdings multiple times. Data shows that during 2025, CAS Computing Source reduced its holdings multiple times, and its shareholding decreased from 16.36% at the end of 2024 to 14.68% in the first quarter of 2026.
In April 2026, Sugon announced that its former controlling shareholder was CAS Computing Source, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the sole shareholder of CAS Computing Source, which was the company's former actual controller. With the company's market - oriented development, the shareholding ratio of CAS Computing Source in the company decreased to 14.68%. The company's control status has changed to having no controlling shareholder and no actual controller.
In fact, in addition to CAS Computing Source, other shareholders also have plans to reduce their holdings. Li Jun, the then director and general manager, planned to reduce his holdings by no more than 6.3204 million shares through competitive trading from March 25, 2026, to June 24, 2026, accounting for 0.43% of the total share capital. At the same time, senior management members Ren Jingyang and Weng Qinan planned to reduce their holdings by no more than 319,100 shares and 234,500 shares respectively, both not exceeding 0.02% of the company's total share capital.
Meanwhile, Sugon has also welcomed a new leader. On May 6, Sugon disclosed the appointment results of the new board of directors and senior management. Li Jun was appointed as the chairman of the sixth - session board of directors and was reappointed as the general manager. Data shows that Li Jun graduated from the Department of Applied Electronic Technology at Tsinghua University. He joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995, joined Beijing Sugon in 1996, served as the president of Sugon Information in 2001, and has served as a director and president of Sugon since March 2006.
Continuously increasing investment in independent technologies has enabled Sugon to maintain continuous growth even after being included in the "Entity List". The approval of the 8 - billion - yuan convertible bonds will further strengthen its financial guarantee for technological R & D. Facing the dual opportunities of global computing power competition brought by AI and domestic substitution, whether Sugon can achieve more growth remains to be further verified by the market and project implementation.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhengtan Finance", written by Wuren, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.