Net profit surges by 429%! A trillion-dollar storage "dark horse" experiencing a major performance explosion

Ask AI · How can AI server demand spark a surge in storage chip price hikes?

Global storage chip prices are rising, and leading companies directly benefit.

According to reports from relevant media, as storage chip prices continue to climb, hardware vendors have also started raising prices to respond. A product负责人 at a domestic smartphone manufacturer said that for this year, the issue facing its products may not be whether to raise prices, but how many times prices will be raised.

From the start of the year to now, the storage price-hike wave has continued to play out. Reports from industry organizations show that in Q1, DRAM prices rose by more than 50% quarter-over-quarter, while NAND prices rose by more than 90% quarter-over-quarter. Storage costs’ share in smartphone BOM costs has already increased to more than 20%, and for mid- to low-end models it is close to 30%.

The core reason behind the price hikes is that AI server demand has surged and has displaced capacity for consumer-electronics storage.

Against this backdrop, the performance of leading storage companies will continue to be realized.

On March 19, domestic leading storage enterprise UNISOC? (Brand: 佰维存储) released its 2025 performance report. The financial statement shows that in 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 11.302 billion, up 68.82% year over year; net profit was RMB 853 million, up 429.07% year over year; non-GAAP net profit was RMB 785 million, up 1072.25% year over year. After excluding share-based payment expenses, attributable net profit was RMB 1.107 billion, up 121.70% year over year. The company’s full-year gross margin was 21.4%.

Regarding the explosive growth in performance, 佰维存储 said it was mainly due to the recovery of the storage industry, the company’s ability to seize opportunities during the industry upcycle, and its vigorous expansion of global leading customers, achieving a breakthrough in both market and business with a leap-forward approach and a significant year-over-year increase in product sales.

In the capital markets, since 2025, 佰维存储 has entered an explosive upward trading trend. According to statistics, in 2025, 佰维存储’s share price increased by 85.23%; and in 2026, it surged by more than 101%. If calculated from 2023, within less than four years, 佰维存储’s stock price gain exceeded 1300%, making it a bona fide “ten-bagger” stock. As of the latest close, 佰维存储’s market capitalization reached RMB 108.1 billion.

Benefiting from the surge in market value, 佰维存储’s controlling shareholder’s personal wealth has also climbed accordingly. According to equity look-through disclosures, Sun Chengsi holds 17.75% of the company’s shares, and based on the latest closing price, the market value of this stake is approximately RMB 19.2 billion.

According to Hurun Research Institute’s latest release of the 2026 Global Rich List, Sun Chengsi ranks 2420th globally with wealth of RMB 13 billion, becoming a newly listed billionaire.

Storage giants on the windfall front

佰维存储 was founded in Shenzhen, and its founder is Sun Rixin.

According to information, Sun Rixin was a college student in the 1980s. Under the national centralized distribution program at the time, after graduation Sun Rixin was assigned to work at the First Survey and Design Institute of the Ministry of Railways. At that time, it was the kind of job most people dreamed of, but Sun Rixin was not satisfied.

In 1995, as the economy took off, more and more people began choosing to go into business. With support from his family and friends, Sun Rixin also came to Shenzhen to start his entrepreneurial journey.

At that time, with the domestic IT industry experiencing explosive growth, Sun Rixin chose to start from computer component trading. Through trading in computer components such as hard drives and floppy disks, he successfully earned his first pot of gold.

Of course, as an engineer by background, Sun Rixin likely would not be satisfied with plain trading business, so extending deeper into the industry became the option he had to choose.

In 2000, Sun Rixin began to venture into ODM contract manufacturing. With a rigorous and pragmatic work style, the company gradually established a foothold in the contract manufacturing field and formed long-term and stable strategic cooperation relationships with global storage wafer original manufacturers such as Intel, Micron, Toshiba, and Samsung. By 2011, the shipment volume of flash drives of 佰维存储 accounted for 11% of the global market, making it one of the largest contract manufacturing enterprises for storage equipment in China.

However, for 佰维存储, this was only the beginning. What truly laid the technical foundation for 佰维存储 in the future was the adventurous decision in 2008. In 2008, the global financial storm pushed many companies to the brink of bankruptcy. Against that backdrop, Sun Rixin made a choice that surprised industry peers—going against the trend to invest and build his own packaging and testing factory.

Later facts proved the correctness of this choice. In this opportunity, the packaging and testing factory not only built for 佰维存储 the capability of a complete industrial chain from wafer to finished products, but also enabled 佰维存储 to build a solid wall against risk fluctuations in subsequent storage cycles. In 2010, Shenzhen 佰维存储 Technology Co., Ltd. was formally established.

In 2012, Sun Rixin’s son, Sun Chengsi, joined the company. Under the leadership of this “second-generation entrepreneur,” 佰维存储 began to accelerate development. By 2016, 佰维存储 had formed a distinctive “Research, Development, Packaging and Testing Integrated” (ISM) operating model. According to materials, in the semiconductor storage industry chain, IDM giants such as Samsung and Micron control the full chain of influence from design, manufacturing to packaging and testing; the fabless model outsources manufacturing and packaging/testing. To accelerate catch-up, 佰维 selected the third path—bringing together key steps including storage media analysis, memory controller chip design, firmware algorithm development, and advanced packaging/testing. This model differs from the simple assembly by traditional storage module manufacturers, enabling 佰维存储 to have more initiative in product definition and customization.

On December 30, 2022, 佰维存储 reached a highlight moment by successfully listing on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

However, after listing, 佰维存储’s development did not meet expectations. While its revenue grew from RMB 2.986 billion in 2022 to RMB 6.695 billion in 2024, net profit fluctuated significantly. But fortunately, 佰维存储 and others caught the “super cycle” in the storage industry. Starting in 2025, the company’s performance and stock price began to see a major breakout.

May continue to benefit

With global storage price-hike expectations fully priced in, leading storage companies have also begun to benefit continuously.

According to statistics, entering Q3 2025, 佰维存储 started to rise explosively. The data show that in Q3, 佰维存储’s share price increase was close to 55%; in Q1 2026, the company’s increase exceeded 101%, and its market capitalization briefly surpassed RMB 120 billion.

Recently, although the share price has pulled back somewhat, the market capitalization has remained stable above RMB 100 billion.

The surge in the share price stems from the breakout in performance.

Relevant materials show that in the first half of 2025, the storage industry was still hovering at the bottom of the cycle. TrendForce data indicates that affected by weak end-market demand, in Q1 the quarter-over-quarter contract price of NAND Flash fell by about 15%—20%, and DRAM fell by about 8%—13%. At that time, even though 佰维存储’s revenue was still growing positively, the profit side remained under pressure. Specifically, in the first half of 2025, 佰维存储 achieved revenue of RMB 3.912 billion, up 13.7% year over year, but net profit was -RMB 225.8 million, down 179.68% year over year.

But in the second half of 2025, as AI large models shifted from the training stage to large-scale scenario deployment, AI server demand showed explosive growth. Global leading storage original equipment manufacturers—Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—shifted more than 80% of their advanced capacity to HBM high-bandwidth memory, prioritizing AI server demand and significantly compressing capacity left for consumer DRAM and NAND Flash. With the supply-demand relationship reversing, storage chips entered a comprehensive price-hike phase, officially kicking off the upcycle.

According to TrendForce statistics, in Q4 2025, NAND Flash contract prices rose by 33%—38% quarter-over-quarter, and DRAM rose by 45%—50%. Entering 2026, the rally accelerated further. Jiqing? (群智咨询) data shows that in Q1, consumer-electronics storage prices rose more than 60% quarter-over-quarter, with NAND gains breaking above 70%. Data released on February 28 by the Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission shows that as of January 2026, global DRAM and NAND prices both reached the highest levels since 2016, when statistics began.

As a result, 佰维存储 also rose to the front of the windfall.

The financial report shows that in Q3 2025, 佰维存储 achieved net profit of RMB 256.2 million, up 563.77% year over year; in Q4, net profit was RMB 822.6 million, up 1329.94% year over year. However, this is still far from over. Based on previously disclosed announcements, 佰维存储 expects revenue of approximately RMB 4.0—4.5 billion for January to February 2026, up 340%—395% year over year; attributable net profit of RMB 1.5—1.8 billion, up 921.77%—1086.13%.

This means that in just the first two months after the start of the year, 佰维存储’s profit has already exceeded its full-year level in 2025. And according to a research report by Everbright? (浙商证券研报) predicting, 佰维存储’s overall net profit margin in Q1 2026 is expected to reach the 40% mark.

From the supply side, the shift of capacity by storage original manufacturers is unlikely to be reversed in the short term. At a February conference call, SK hynix said that due to rigid supply constraints such as the explosive rise in real AI demand and limited cleanroom space, storage chip prices in 2026 will continue to rise, and it is a foregone conclusion that the upward trend will run through the entire year. From the demand side, AI consumption of storage is still accelerating. According to SEMI data, in 2026 the global storage industry value will exceed USD 550 billion, surpassing the wafer foundry scale for the first time, becoming the semiconductor industry’s first major growth engine.

A research report by CITIC Securities states that driven by AI demand, storage is still in the middle-to-early stage of the super favorable cycle, and the situation of demand outstripping supply is expected to persist at least through 2027.

Looking ahead, 佰维存储 says it will continue to strengthen its “R&D, packaging and testing integrated” strategy, continuously increase R&D investment in key steps, and further build full-chain vertical integration capabilities covering chip design, storage solutions, and advanced packaging and testing, so as to achieve rapid response, deep customization, and efficient delivery for emerging AI application scenarios.

On March 24, 佰维存储 announced that the company signed a daily operations procurement agreement with a certain storage original manufacturer. Under the contract, the company agreed to purchase certain storage wafers from the supplier according to the quantity, price, and time specified in the agreement. The total committed procurement amount under the contract is USD 1.5 billion (about RMB 10.3 billion), with a total committed procurement period of 24 months.

Caijing.com? (侃见财经) believes that as the storage super cycle continues, the storage chip price-hike wave will keep spreading, which also implies that 佰维存储’s performance will continue to deliver.

Author’s statement: personal views, for reference only