Fiber optic concept shows strong performance, institutions optimistic about niche sectors

Ask AI · Why can CPO technology become a key innovation to break through the bandwidth bottleneck?

【Global Network Finance Comprehensive Report】The explosive growth in AI computing power demand has triggered a global rush for fiber optic cables. According to Oriental Fortune, there are 34 fiber optic concept stocks in the A-share market, with a combined total market value of about 1.35 trillion yuan. FiberHome, with a market value of about 256.2 billion yuan, and Tianfu Communications, with a market value of about 232.5 billion yuan, are among them. Hengtong Optoelectronics and ZTT also have market values exceeding 100 billion yuan.

This year, fiber optic concept stocks have been performing strongly, with more than 70% of stocks rising. Hangdian Co., Ltd. surged 2.5 times to take the lead. Falson rose by 204%, and FiberHome, Hengtong Optoelectronics, and Tongding Interconnection all saw their share prices double. In terms of capital flows, data from Oriental Fortune Choice shows that over the past month, 11 fiber optic concept stocks received net financing purchases. Hengtong Optoelectronics received an additional 1.018 billion yuan in leveraged funding; Fiberxon Technology and FiberHome Technologies were bought by margin investors for 545 million yuan and 2.51 billion yuan, respectively.

According to analysis by Guotai Junan Securities, one direction is that AI infrastructure has a relatively high penetration slope. From 2023 to 2025, demand for optical interconnection is mainly focused on iteration in Scale out scenarios and rate upgrades. It is expected that starting in 2026, the Scale out scenario will continue to maintain a relatively high demand growth rate. At the same time, Scale up optical interconnection, taking forms such as CPO/NPO, is starting to penetrate and open up a new incremental market. It is expected that optical interconnection’s share of value in AI clusters will continue to rise. 2026 will be a year in which the continued explosion of existing scenarios and products intertwines with the mass production of new scenarios and products. In sub-sectors and companies with deeper moats, those expected to benefit continuously.

CITIC Securities states that the long-term trend of copper moving out and optics moving in is likely irreversible. The certainty of CPO becoming widely adopted in the long term is high, and investment opportunities in optical chips and fiber optic cables look promising. Over the past twenty years, computing power growth has been about 60,000 times, but interconnect bandwidth has increased by only about 30 times—making connection bandwidth the core bottleneck for computing power growth. By bringing the optical engine closer to the switch ASIC, CPO can reduce power consumption from 30–35 watts to 7–9 watts (a 70% reduction). (Wen Hui)