CanSemi Debuts on ChiNext in China Chip Self-Reliance Bid

CanSemi Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. (粤芯半导体), the 12-inch wafer foundry known as Guangzhou’s “first chip,” began trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext board on October 13, 2026, under stock code 301660. The listing — the largest ChiNext debut of the year and the first by a wafer manufacturer under the board’s registration-based system — is being framed as a milestone in China’s push for semiconductor self-reliance.

According to Xinhua News, CanSemi is “one of the important investment projects serving Guangzhou’s emerging pillar industries” and a vehicle for the city’s positioning in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Founded in 2017, the company is Guangdong Province’s first independently cultivated 12-inch wafer manufacturer to enter mass production.

A Strategic Bet on Mature Chips

CanSemi’s IPO raised 7.5 billion yuan, with shares priced at 12.01 yuan each, according to a Guangzhou Daily filing report. The company issued roughly 512.6 million shares, or about 17.81% of post-issue capital, in an offering that drew an effective subscription multiple of 2,359.68 times and an online allotment rate of just 0.0424%, per 10jqka. Online investors forfeited 469,000 shares, later underwritten by GF Securities, Yicai reported.

Rather than chasing cutting-edge nodes, CanSemi pursues what it calls a “dislocation competition” strategy — focusing on mature specialty processes for analog chips used in the internet of things, automotive electronics, industrial control and 5G. The company operates two 12-inch fabs and, as of the end of 2025, had reached capacity of 63,300 wafers per month, Xinhua reported. A third factory (Phase IV) launched in January 2026 with an investment of about 25.2 billion yuan aimed at a further 40,000 wafers per month by the end of 2029, according to Jiemian News.

A Rare Edge in Silicon Photonics

CanSemi’s most distinctive asset may be in silicon photonics. As of April 2026, research cited by 21st Century Business Herald identifies it as the only company in mainland China with large-scale 12-inch silicon photonics wafer mass-production capability — a technology that underpins the optical transmission infrastructure for AI computing.

“The launch of Phase IV marks CanSemi’s transition from a ‘survival’ stage to a ‘distinctive-characteristic creation’ development stage,” Chairman Chen Jin said at the project’s groundbreaking, according to Jiemian. President Chen Wei said the expansion would drive the company from analog foundry work toward “a composite technology platform centered on analog, transformed by digital upgrade, and characterized by optoelectronic integration.”

Financials Tell a Harder Story

The strategic narrative sits atop steep losses. CanSemi reported revenue of 1.777 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, up 68.76% year on year, but a net loss of 1.052 billion yuan, according to Phoenix/Securities Star. The company reported a gross margin of -24.46% for the period, with a debt ratio of 73.11%.

Over the reporting period from 2022 through the first half of 2025, CanSemi’s cumulative losses exceeded 6.4 billion yuan, and its unrecovered losses approached 9 billion yuan, according to an analysis by Time Weekly’s business research unit. The company projects its earliest turn to profitability in 2029 — slower than peers such as Jinghe Integrated and Xinlian Integrated, which reached profitability roughly six and seven-and-a-half years after founding, respectively.

Time Weekly also questioned CanSemi’s pricing power, noting its wafer selling prices — 3,976 to 5,909 yuan per wafer over the period — sit well below comparable fabs such as Huahong, Jinghe, Xinlian and SMIC. Seven of the company’s eight process platforms have not yet reached the most advanced market level, with process nodes capped at 55 nanometers in areas like image sensors and display driver chips.

CanSemi attributes the losses to the heavy-asset nature of wafer manufacturing, high depreciation and its still-ramping production. Capacity utilization rose from 55.23% in 2023 to 96.38% in 2025, and the 2025 production-to-sales ratio reached 99.47% — near full production and sales.

Why It Matters

The listing reflects both the ambition and the arithmetic of China’s chip self-sufficiency drive. China accounts for roughly 33% of the global analog chip market, worth about 198.6 billion yuan in 2024, yet its analog chip self-sufficiency rate stood at only about 16% — up from 9% in 2019 — leaving significant room for import substitution.

Guangzhou has staked its industrial policy on capturing that gap. The city has designated the semiconductor sector a strategic priority, building a “one core, two poles” layout across Huangpu, Zengcheng and Nansha districts. The Huangpu development zone alone hosts more than 150 integrated circuit companies, with output exceeding 34 billion yuan in 2025, up 17.1%, according to Jiemian.

State backing runs deep. Six of CanSemi’s top ten shareholders have local state-capital backgrounds, and the company has raised more than 100 billion yuan in strategic investment from outside Guangzhou, including the State Development and Investment Corporation and investment arms of China’s four largest state banks, Jiemian reported. Guangzhou Industrial Investment Holdings has participated in all four phases, investing a cumulative 2.34 billion yuan of its own funds.

What to Watch

The company’s roadmap will be tested on several fronts: whether Phase IV can move CanSemi up the value chain toward 22-nanometer specialty processes; whether its silicon photonics lead converts into durable pricing power; and whether a path to profitability materializes before capital markets lose patience with its losses.

For now, the debut concentrated those questions into a single ticker on ChiNext. As China’s chip ambitions meet the discipline of public markets, CanSemi’s performance will be watched as a test of whether strategic necessity can translate into commercial returns.