10 months, 10x! Changfei Optical Fiber's stock price hits a new high again during trading

“Someone once asked me, is Changfei making airplanes? I said, we make fiber optics—we can make information fly up, fly all the way to you.” This was his opening remarks, six years ago, when Shanghái Securities News interviewed Zhuang Dan, Executive Director and President of Changfei Optic Fiber.

With just six years passing, the halo of Changfei as the “first fiber-optics stock” has already become known to the public. Even more moving is that the company’s market value has achieved a 10-fold increase.

On April 3, the share price of Changfei Optic Fiber (601869) hit yet another record high intraday and at one point challenged the daily limit-up. By the close, it was 352.50 yuan per share. Compared with the company’s price of 34.50 yuan per share on June 18, 2025, this represents an over 10-fold increase. The day before, the total market capitalization of the company’s A+H shares first surpassed 200 billion yuan.

“Changfei becoming the first listed company in Hubei to exceed 200 billion yuan in total market capitalization is of milestone significance for Hubei. It marks a substantive breakthrough for Hubei in nurturing and growing homegrown technology leaders and in driving the industry to climb to the high end of the value chain.” On the evening of April 2, President Zhuang Dan of Changfei Optic Fiber said this in a post on his Moments.

As China’s first “A+H” listed company in the fiber optics and cable industry, Changfei Optic Fiber, headquartered in Wuhan’s Optics Valley, has cumulatively delivered more than 1.2 billion fiber-kilometers of fiber optics. Its share in its main business has remained No. 1 globally for 9 consecutive years.

Brokerage firm professionals interviewed by reporters said that surpassing 200 billion yuan in market value is not only a recognition of the company’s value, but will also further incentivize and drive the development of Wuhan’s photoelectronic industry cluster. Nearly in sync with Changfei Optic Fiber, a number of optoelectronic industry chain companies from Wuhan’s Optics Valley—including Huagong Technology, Fiberhome Communications, Fiber Optic Technology, Unitech Technology, and Changyingtong—also saw their share prices surge significantly, becoming the impressive “Optics Valley sector.”

Stepping onto the computing power boom

With the rapid development of AI, computing power resources have already become a key infrastructure, bringing enormous opportunities to the fiber transmission industry. At present, the R&D direction for optical network products has also shifted—from the traditional standardized, general products centered on telecom backbone networks and metro-area networks, toward innovative fiber-optic products for interconnecting within smart-computing data centers and high-performance computing clusters.

New markets and new products are bringing new growth in performance. Changfei Optic Fiber’s financial report shows that in the fourth quarter of 2025, thanks to an improvement in the market supply-demand environment, as well as the company’s global leading advantages in both traditional and new-type fiber optics, the company’s main business profitability strengthened. It achieved an attributable net profit of approximately 3.44 billion yuan, up about 234.2% year over year; it achieved a non-recurring attributable net profit of 2.33 billion yuan, up about 293.6% year over year. The company’s 2025 full-year gross margin was 30.7%, the first time it exceeded 30% since listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2014; the gross margin in the fourth quarter was 35.7%, also the highest single-quarter gross margin since listing.

In March this year, at the Barcelona World Mobile Communications Conference, Changfei Optic Fiber officially released its hollow-core fiber brand HollowBand, and announced a technological achievement: the key performance of its hollow-core fiber was further improved, achieving the world’s lowest attenuation of 0.04 dB/km; compared with traditional fiber optics, latency was reduced by 31%, and transmission speed increased by 47%.

According to disclosures, Changfei Optic Fiber has built a complete hollow-core fiber industrial chain—from preparing hollow-core fiber preform rods, to drawing and coating, through to cabling testing. The drawing length of a single hollow-core fiber preform rod reaches 91.2 kilometers, enabling large-scale manufacturing of long-segment, ultra-low-loss hollow-core fibers, thereby laying a solid industrial foundation for even larger-scale commercial use. The company provides customized, fine-grained, full-series products and solutions for smart-computing scenarios, and makes full use of its R&D and industrialization advantages in new fiber-optic products to expand related businesses and consolidate its leading position.

As Changfei Optic Fiber moves onto the global stage, it has now established 9 production bases in countries including Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, Poland, and Mexico, and has set up more than 50 overseas companies or offices. It serves more than 100 countries and regions worldwide. In 2025, the proportion of overseas business revenue in total revenue has already exceeded 40%.

Started with fiber optics

More than just fiber optics

Previously, when interviewed by Shanghái Securities News, Zhuang Dan said that an excellent company is one that can earn more money than others when the market is doing well; when the market is bad, it can survive—and maintain a relatively reasonable level of profit.

As a leading enterprise in the global fiber optics and cable industry, Changfei Optic Fiber is also one of the earliest optical fiber and cable manufacturers in China. In 1992, Changfei drew China’s first commercial optical fiber. Today, the company is one of the few domestic companies capable of large-scale integrated development and production of fiber preform rods, optical fibers, and cables, and it continues to expand both upstream and downstream along the industrial chain.

Screenshot source: the investor activity relationship records table disclosed by the company

Beyond its fiber-optics business, in May 2025, Changfei Optic Fiber’s investment in the Changfei Advanced Wuhan base was officially put into production. The base can produce 360,000 6-inch silicon carbide wafers per year; after reaching full capacity, it can supply “hearts” to 1.44 million new-energy vehicles every year, becoming the largest silicon carbide wafer plant in the country. In February this year, Changfei Advanced announced that it has recently completed equity financing of more than 1 billion yuan in Round A. The funds will mainly be used for technical layout across the entire silicon carbide power semiconductor industrial chain, accelerating efforts to seize the global market in emerging fields.

The rise of the capital market “Optics Valley sector”

With Changfei Optic Fiber and a number of companies such as China Information and Communication Technologies Group, Huagong Technology, and Raycus Laser driving the way, Wuhan’s Optics Valley has now also become the world’s largest fiber optics and cable R&D and manufacturing base, the country’s largest base for optoelectronic component production and optical communication technology R&D, the country’s largest base for small and mid-sized display panels, as well as an important cluster of integrated circuit industries and a laser industry base. It has become an important strategic force for China’s participation in international cooperation and competition in the field of optoelectronic information, standing out uniquely in the optoelectronic information industry.

In the capital markets, two thousand-billion-level companies, along with a batch of hundred-billion-level market value companies, are propping up the impressive Wuhan “Optics Valley sector.” Among the top 10 listed companies by market value in Hubei, 6 are located in Wuhan’s Optics Valley.

The outline of the “15th five-year plan (2026–2030)” proposes forward-looking deployment of future industries. It calls for pushing fields including the sixth-generation mobile communications system to become new engines of economic growth.

At present, optical communication technology has become a common support for both 6G R&D and AI computing power development. Previously, relevant personnel from China Information and Communication Technologies Group told reporters from Shanghái Securities News that optical communication connection investment between AI clusters accounts for 5% to 15% of total hardware costs, and computing power demand drives strong demand for the optical communication market. Both 6G technology development and AI computing power development require optical communication to meet standards of “high data rates, high density, low power consumption, and low cost.” Advanced optoelectronic technologies such as new fiber-optic media, silicon photonics technology, and CPO processes have all become essential supporting technologies.

Six years ago, Zhuang Dan told reporters from Shanghái Securities News, “Our company’s goal is to become the No. 1 in the world and the industry leader. In terms of market share, we achieved No. 1 globally in 2016. In the long run, we hope not only to reach the No. 1 position in market share, but also to achieve the No. 1 status globally in terms of technology level, product R&D, and other aspects.” Looking back now, these words are truly sincere.

（Source: Shanghái Securities News）