The contract amount is equivalent to three times the annual revenue and 40% of the market capitalization. Youzu Interactive has placed a RMB 4.2 billion large GPU order for computing power.

On the evening of November 3, Youzu Network (002174.SZ) released a procurement announcement that caught the full attention of the market. 

Its wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Youzu Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Youzu Information") recently signed a Sales Contract with "Company A" to purchase GPU products of model PRO5500 (PCIe), with a total amount of RMB 4.225 billion (including tax).

Compared with the company's latest total market value of about RMB 11.2 billion, the scale of this contract is nearly 40% of its market value; measured by the company's total operating revenue of RMB 1.402 billion in 2025, it is equivalent to investing more than three years of revenue in hardware procurement at one time. On the day the announcement was disclosed, the company's operating revenue in the first three quarters of 2026 was RMB 1.063 billion.

Why did a company whose game revenue accounts for more than 99% sign a GPU order of such a huge magnitude at this time? The announcement pointed out the general direction, but key details still remain unspecified.

01 , Nearly 40% of Market Value Bet on Hardware

According to the announcement, the subject of this procurement is PRO5500 (PCIe) GPU products. According to a report by CLS, this model corresponds to the professional-grade GPU product of NVIDIA based on the Blackwell architecture, which is mainly designed for enterprise-level AI inference, generative AI and graphics simulation workloads. The contract is delivered in batches, and the final order price may change with the adjustment from the original manufacturer or upper-level suppliers.

The counterparty "Company A" is not named in the announcement. The company defines this transaction as a major contract in daily business operations, clarifying that it does not involve related-party transactions, nor does it constitute major asset restructuring.

The capital arrangement is the focus of market attention. The announcement stated that the project's capital source is a combination of "self-owned funds, bank credit lines, financial leasing and other methods"; due to batch delivery and recyclable use of funds, "the overall capital investment scale is controllable".

When comparing this statement with the company's third-quarter report, the pressure on its books becomes obvious.

The third-quarter report disclosed on October 28 shows that Youzu Network achieved operating revenue of RMB 1.063 billion in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 4.31%; the attributable net profit was RMB 142 million, a year-on-year increase of 85.97%, which apparently is a report card with both revenue and net profit growing.

However, a closer look at the figures reveals that the situation is not optimistic. In the third quarter alone, the company's attributable net profit was -RMB 111 million, a year-on-year decline of more than 5 times; the attributable net profit after non-recurring gains and losses in the first three quarters was only RMB 27.1762 million, which declined year on year.

In terms of cash flow, the net cash flow generated from operating activities in the first three quarters was -RMB 651 million, which the company explained was mainly due to the consolidation of newly acquired entities. As of the end of the third quarter, the balance of the company's cash and cash equivalents was about RMB 1.176 billion.

In other words, the coverage rate of book self-owned funds for the RMB 4.225 billion contract amount is less than 30%, and the remaining part needs to be leveraged by bank credit lines, financial leasing and other leverage tools.

The wording of the company in the announcement is quite prudent: there is uncertainty in the "implementation content and progress of the contract", the amount of impact on financial indicators "cannot be measured for the time being", and if implemented smoothly, it will help the company promote transformation and upgrading. This means that there is no quantitative standard for when this heavy investment will be converted into revenue and what the conversion scale will be.

02 , From Packaging to Full Graphics Card

Youzu Network did not decide to increase its investment in GPUs on a whim. Looking at a longer timeline, its extension to the computing power industry chain has a layout track of more than a year.

In July 2025, the company participated in the investment of domestic GPU enterprise Xiwang Sunrise and reached a strategic cooperation, and the two sides carried out collaboration around customized computing power cards, AIGC content production and private computing power clusters.

In 2026, the pace of layout has accelerated significantly: in July, it reached a cooperation with Xiwang on digital economy computing power collaboration, and cooperated with 21Vianet to promote the Ulanqab green computing power project, and built AI interactive corpus related projects with People's Daily Online in the same period; in August, it cooperated with Kangying Semiconductor and Xiwang to launch a 2.5D/3D advanced packaging center in Wuxi High-tech Zone; in September, the advanced packaging project of Dijiang Technology, which was jointly initiated, was launched in Shanghai, with plans to build large-scale production lines in phases.

Also in September, Youzu Intelligent Computing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, acquired 51% equity of Zhicun Heying (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd. through capital increase and included it in the consolidated statements, whose main business is the sales of special electronic equipment and electronic products.

From upstream advanced packaging and midstream electronic equipment to this direct procurement of full GPU cards, Youzu's vertical extension on the computing power industry chain is clear. The RMB 4.225 billion procurement contract is more like a key link in this chain rather than an isolated action.

Against the general background where the entire game industry is collectively looking for a second growth curve, the positioning of this contract is clearer. Among leading manufacturers, 37 Interactive Entertainment chose the LP-style financial investment route, and successively invested in enterprises such as Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI. In the first half of 2026 alone, it obtained an investment income of about RMB 1.016 billion due to the listing of Zhipu AI; Perfect World announced in September that it would contribute RMB 500 million to subscribe for the frontier technology fund, which invests in semiconductor equipment and new materials; Century Huatong tends to internalize computing power and integrate it into its self-developed large model system.

In contrast, Youzu is a rare player among A-share game companies that directly signs a large order for full GPU cards in a heavy asset approach.

This choice is not unsupported by internal demand. The company's self-developed YOOZOO.AI aggregation platform has accessed dozens of large models, covering hundreds of business scenarios. The data it disclosed shows that AI tools have realized automatic generation of 70% of test cases, and the local translation cost has been reduced by 80% cumulatively.

However, the market's concerns have not been fully answered: after these batches of equipment are in place, how much will be used for self-developed game AI and AIGC R&D, and how much will be used to provide external computing power services. If external business is involved, whether it corresponds to new qualification requirements and changes in the main business structure? How will the batch delivery rhythm match the capital arrangement of credit lines and leasing? All these require subsequent announcements and regular reports to give answers.

At the moment when the game industry is facing stock competition, rising user acquisition costs, and AIGC reshaping the content production process,

"Pursuing computing power" is becoming a common choice for leading manufacturers to find new growth curves. Youzu's RMB 4.2 billion procurement order is the largest one among them, and thus it has become the one that needs to be continuously tracked.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Aotou Finance" (ID: theSankei), author: New Financial Media Pioneer, published with authorization from 36Kr.