"Yi Zhongtian" released its semi-annual report, with a total profit of 22.3 billion yuan in the first half of the year.
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As of August 25, the semi-annual reports of the "three giants" in the optical module industry have all been released.
In the first half of 2026, Eoptolink, Innolight, and TFC have all delivered performance results that boost market confidence. Among them, Innolight's net profit reached 136.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 241.70%; Eoptolink's net profit was 75.29 billion yuan, up 90.98% year on year; TFC's net profit hit 12.04 billion yuan, representing a 33.92% year-on-year growth.
In their semi-annual reports, all three companies pointed out that the construction of data centers and supercomputing centers driven by the development of artificial intelligence has brought significant positive impacts to their businesses. However, details in the financial statements clearly show that the growth logic and business rhythm of the three leading enterprises have begun to diverge.
Innolight remains the leading enterprise, leading the industry in both revenue and profit. According to the financial report, in the first half of the year, Innolight achieved an operating revenue of 417.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 182.49%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 136.51 billion yuan, up 241.70% year on year, and the non-recurring profit and loss deducted net profit was 130.92 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 229.32%. It is worth noting that the company's net profit growth rate has exceeded its revenue growth rate, while the gross profit margin of its optical module business reached 46.59%, 6.63 percentage points higher than the same period of the previous year.
Behind this growth is not only the rising industry demand, but also the change in the company's own product structure. Innolight mentioned in its financial report that the main reason for the revenue growth is the growth of computing power infrastructure construction and related capital expenditure, which drives the increase in sales of high-end optical modules such as 1.6T and 800G. In addition, the company clearly stated that 1.6T silicon optical modules have entered the stage of large-scale volume shipment, with shipments rising quarter by quarter, becoming the core product driving revenue growth. For Innolight, the AI-driven demand growth has been transmitted from a simple increase in orders to the improvement of product structure.
Eoptolink's revenue also continued to climb in the first half of the year, but the growth of profit and gross profit margin slowed down relatively. In the first half of the year, Eoptolink achieved an operating revenue of 209.10 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 100.34%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 75.29 billion yuan, up 90.98% year on year. According to the financial report, the production capacity of the company's optical interconnection products increased from 15.2 million units in the same period of last year to 28.36 million units, and the sales volume increased from 6.95 million units to 11.19 million units.
Beyond the growth, there are two data indicators in the financial report worthy of attention. From the perspective of market distribution, Eoptolink is highly dependent on overseas orders. In the first half of this year, the overseas sales volume of the company's optical interconnection products was 9.73 million units, with sales revenue of 204.60 billion yuan, contributing more than 97% of the total revenue. In terms of R&D investment, Eoptolink's R&D expenditure in the first half of the year increased by 31.85% year on year. In contrast, Innolight's R&D expenditure increased by more than 110% year on year.
Against the backdrop of the rapid growth of the above two companies, TFC's semi-annual report seems relatively mediocre. In the first half of the year, TFC achieved an operating revenue of 28.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.15%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 12.04 billion yuan, up 33.92% year on year.
TFC is located in the upstream of the industrial chain, providing one-stop optical interconnection solutions that combine passive optical devices, active optical devices and optical module OEM services. Its development also relies on the supply of more upstream materials. TFC stated in its financial report that the temporary supply shortage of individual materials has a great impact on the production expansion of the company's active optical device products, which also restricts the performance growth to a certain extent.
However, TFC is currently in the process of expanding production. On August 21, TFC stated on its interactive platform that the temporary supply shortage of individual materials in the first half of 2026 has caused a certain impact on the production expansion of the company's active optical device products. In response to the relevant temporary shortage, the company has taken active countermeasures in a timely manner, including introducing new suppliers to ensure the stable delivery of relevant core materials.
The financial report shows that in the first half of 2026, the passive and active optical device businesses at TFC's Thailand production base are in a state of steady production expansion, and the production building of the second phase of the Jiangxi production base has been delivered and put into use. At the same time, the construction of the new Suzhou headquarters and super factory is also advancing, and it is expected to be put into use one after another starting from 2027.
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Although the three leading enterprises have different business paths and semi-annual report performances, the information released by the three giants in their financial statements still confirms some common trends.
First, the continuous growth of AI computing power demand is forcing product iteration. 800G is still an important product in the current market, but 1.6T has begun to enter the stage of large-scale delivery from "technical verification".
In the semi-annual report, Innolight said that 1.6T silicon optical modules have become an important product for revenue growth; Eoptolink issued an announcement of the investor relationship activity record form in June this year, stating that the orders for 1.6T optical module products have increased significantly compared with last year, and it is expected to show a trend of rapid growth quarter by quarter this year.
The research report released by Guotai Haitong Securities points out that the vertically integrated (Scale up) optical interconnection technology with CPO and NPO as the core has officially entered the commercialization and implementation cycle, opening up a brand new incremental market for the industry. 2026 has thus become an important inflection point for the industry: mature stock products achieve large-scale volume shipment relying on existing scenarios, and new cutting-edge technology products such as CPO and NPO are simultaneously mass-produced and put into use.
Against the above technical trend, Innolight pointed out in its semi-annual report that the company has laid out next-generation optical interconnection technologies, and products such as XPO and NPO are under customized development or R&D improvement; Eoptolink has also launched a full series of 400G, 800G and 1.6T optical module products based on silicon photonics (SiPh) and thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) technologies.
Second, from the perspective of sales, leading optical module manufacturers have taken overseas production expansion as a necessary option. All three companies have started to make layouts in advance to meet the needs of global customers.
Against the backdrop of continuous computing power investment by overseas cloud service vendors, all three companies are highly dependent on overseas business revenue. The semi-annual reports also coincidentally mentioned information about production bases: Innolight has production bases in Suzhou, Chengdu, Thailand and other places; TFC has formed a layout of two major production bases in Gao'an, Jiangxi, China and Chonburi, Thailand.
These layouts actually reveal the reserve of optical module manufacturers for future risks. Under the dual influence of industry delivery requirements and overseas uncertain factors, the competitive barrier of the optical module industry is expanding from a single technical capability to comprehensive capability — which not only involves technology and products, but also includes the company's large-scale delivery and supply chain strength.
After the surge in AI computing power demand, the optical module industry has ushered in a round of value revaluation. However, after the release of this semi-annual report, the stock prices of the three companies fell collectively. On August 24, their total market value evaporated by more than 150 billion yuan in a single day. As of the close of trading today, Innolight and Eoptolink fell by 2.78% and 2.70% respectively, while TFC's stock price rose by 3.05%.
The attitude of the capital market has changed subtly. From the perspective of performance, high growth is still continuing, but the market's focus has shifted from growth to specific realization.
When stocking up in advance becomes the common choice of the industry, the market needs the three leading enterprises to prove a clearer return space. The semi-annual report shows that the advance payments made by various manufacturers to upstream core raw material suppliers have increased significantly. In the first quarter, Innolight's advance payments increased from 134 million yuan at the end of 2025 to 1.488 billion yuan, Eoptolink's rose from 16.96 million yuan to 682 million yuan, and TFC's also increased from 20.77 million yuan to 96.63 million yuan.
Reflected in the company's expenditures, the investment has already been ahead of the order revenue.
The semi-annual report shows that the net cash flow generated from operating activities of Innolight in the first half of the year decreased by 44.08% year on year. In the investor activity record form disclosed on the evening of August 23, Innolight responded that the current downstream demand is very strong. While meeting customer delivery, the company is also actively preparing for production and materials. The vast majority of operating cash flow expenditures in the first half of 2026 were for the purchase of raw materials, part of which was normal procurement to meet the actual delivery rhythm, and there was also a large amount of advance stocking.
A senior management member of an optical industry company told Jiemian News that in this round of growth, all companies are rapidly increasing production capacity to meet demand, leaving no room for other competitors, which also conforms to the law of industry development. However, he believes that whether the overall order exceeds expectations still needs to be observed for a period of time.
The growth of the industry is not over yet, but the questioning of optical module enterprises has already begun. When performance growth is no longer a rare thing, the leading manufacturers after seizing production capacity have also ushered in a new round of delivery test.
This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Jiemian News", author: She Xiaochen, published with authorization from 36Kr.