El líder mundial Wolfspeed solicita bancarrota, Tianyue Advanced y Tianke Heda registran pérdidas. ¿Hasta cuándo durará la competencia en el mercado de sustratos de carburo de silicio?

Produced by: Sina Finance Listed Company Research Institute

Author: Guangxin

On the evening of March 27, 2026, Tianyue Advanced released its 2025 annual report, showing the company achieved a total revenue of 1.465 billion yuan, a decrease of 17.15% year-on-year, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of 208 million yuan, turning from profit to loss.

However, market reaction to the annual report was quite positive, with the stock price rising for three consecutive trading days after the release, reaching a cumulative increase of 10.94% by the close on April 1.

From major financial forums, most investors focus on production and sales data. In 2025, the company’s silicon carbide substrate production volume was 690,400 pieces, up 68.31% year-on-year, with sales volume of 633,300 pieces, up 54.90%.

Regarding the reasons for the decline in performance, the company stated that mainly the decrease in the average price of silicon carbide substrates led to a decline in revenue and gross profit, coupled with increased sales and R&D expenses year-on-year, as well as higher income tax expenses and late payment penalties.

Calculating the unit price based on the formula “revenue/sales volume of silicon carbide substrates,” Tianyue Advanced’s single-chip price has dropped from 4,080 yuan/piece in 2024 to 2,304 yuan/piece, a decline of 56%.

Whether the company actively lowered prices to compete in the market or passively joined price wars, this decline appears quite brutal. Coupled with the news that Wolfspeed, a global pioneer and absolute leader in silicon carbide, filed for bankruptcy, the silicon carbide substrate market in 2025 can be described as bloodshed and chaos.

**　　In recent years, downstream price wars have been fierce, and competitors like Tianke Heda have been loss-making for many years**

Silicon carbide (SiC), as a typical third-generation semiconductor material, has advantages such as wide bandgap, high breakdown electric field, and high thermal conductivity compared to traditional silicon-based (first-generation semiconductor) and gallium arsenide/indium phosphide (second-generation semiconductor) compounds. It is regarded as an ideal material for high voltage, high temperature, and high frequency applications, mainly used in various industrial scenarios.

According to estimates by Forrester Sullivan, currently and in the next five years, xEv (electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, broadly categorized as new energy vehicles) will be the main application field for silicon carbide, with market share always exceeding 70%.

Projection of silicon carbide market size in various fields from 2019 to 2030 (Source: Forrester Sullivan)

In recent years, new energy vehicle companies have been intensively competing, and the price war in the 2025 car market is even more brutal, with various replacement subsidies, scrapping subsidies, and manufacturer subsidies layered on top. Many models have offered unprecedented low prices, compounded by rising raw material costs, tightening cost constraints for new energy vehicle companies, making upstream silicon carbide industry inevitably affected.

According to brokerage research reports, the domestic leading suppliers of N-type silicon carbide substrates are Tianyue Advanced and Tianke Heda, with global market shares of 17.3% and 17.1% respectively, totaling 34.4%, surpassing Wolfspeed, the top global silicon carbide substrate company.

Global revenue share of N-type silicon carbide substrate suppliers in 2024 (Source: brokerage research)

However, as price wars deepen in 2025, Tianyue Advanced’s net profit attributable to shareholders again turned negative, and its competitor Tianke Heda’s situation is also not good.

Tianke Heda’s full name is Beijing Tianke Heda Semiconductor Co., Ltd., established in September 2006 by Xinjiang Tianfu Group and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was founded four years earlier than Tianyue Advanced and is one of the earliest domestic companies engaged in silicon carbide semiconductor R&D.

In May 2017, Tianke Heda was listed on the New Third Board, but delisted in August 2019. Afterwards, it attempted to list on the STAR Market, with its application accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange in July 2020, but the review was terminated in October 2020, marking the failure of its listing attempt.

Financial data disclosed during its listing period shows that its revenue in 2018-2019 was lower than Tianyue Advanced’s, but it had already achieved profitability, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of 30.04 million yuan in 2019, while Tianyue Advanced posted a loss of 201 million yuan in the same period.

There are signs that Tianke Heda has also been suffering losses in recent years.

According to the financial report of Tianfu Energy, the second largest shareholder of Tianke Heda, from 2022 to the first half of 2025, Tianke Heda, as a long-term equity investment, recognized gains and losses of -6.6 million yuan, 8.36 million yuan, -19.49 million yuan, and -14.09 million yuan respectively, based on the equity method. During this period, Tianfu Energy held 9.09% of Tianke Heda, meaning Tianke Heda’s profits/losses each period were approximately -72.63 million yuan, 91.94 million yuan, -214 million yuan, and -155 million yuan. In three and a half years, it only turned a profit once, with recent losses exceeding 100 million yuan, suffering heavy blood loss.

**　　Overseas leader files for bankruptcy, car companies’ price war reverses, is silicon carbide entering a spring?**

In May 2025, according to U.S. media reports, Wolfspeed is working with bankruptcy advisors to file for bankruptcy protection within a few weeks and seek solutions to its massive debt.

After this news was disclosed, Wolfspeed’s stock price plummeted 60% overnight, ranking first in the U.S. stock decline list.

Wolfspeed’s predecessor Cree was founded in 1987, initially focusing on silicon carbide-based blue LED products, and later launched the world’s first commercial silicon carbide wafer, making it a pioneer in silicon carbide.

As the lighting business gradually declined, Cree divested its LED business in 2016 and officially renamed itself Wolfspeed in October 2021, fully transforming into a third-generation semiconductor company.

Between 2021 and 2024, Wolfspeed expanded its manufacturing capacity significantly, but this coincided with the “dead end” of the European and American auto markets’ electrification expectations. Orders from automaker clients sharply decreased, and the company’s capacity advantage turned into depreciation burden. Facing continuous huge losses, Wolfspeed finally announced the initiation of bankruptcy restructuring.

Market opinions suggest that the serious homogenization of silicon carbide substrate products leads to price competition, and China manufacturers’ price advantage in global competition is a key factor causing Wolfspeed’s insolvency.

Currently, Wolfspeed’s poor performance and shrinking capacity utilization will further impact economies of scale, increase costs, and weaken product price competitiveness. This may create opportunities for Chinese manufacturers to reshape the global silicon carbide substrate market landscape.

On the other hand, China’s new energy vehicle market has recently undergone a strategic “U-turn.” In the past few years, car companies that believed in “price for volume” are now collectively raising prices.

According to incomplete statistics, as of March 29, 2026, more than 15 new energy vehicle companies have announced price increases or reduction of discounts, with increases ranging from 2000 to 20,000 yuan.

It is reported that this round of price adjustments mainly targets the 100,000-200,000 yuan market, with a 3%-5% increase; the 200,000-300,000 yuan market sees a 2%-4% rise; high-end markets above 300,000 yuan see a 1%-3% increase; and entry-level cars below 100,000 yuan continue to maintain discounts, continuing volume-driven strategies.

Notably, from various factors, this round of price increases appears to be mainly driven by cost factors.

Recently, lithium prices have surged. UBS estimates that the rise in lithium carbonate prices has increased per-vehicle costs by 3,000 to 5,000 yuan. Additionally, AI has significantly squeezed capacity for automotive-grade chips, and storage chips have driven up costs for vehicle intelligence by 2,000 to 3,000 yuan. Meanwhile, the exemption of vehicle purchase tax has been officially phased out, and local subsidies have been tightened, making carmakers’ price hikes seem like a helpless move to maintain profitability.

In this context, silicon carbide companies, whose product prices have already been halved, what will be their future? Only time will tell.