After a 1,500% Surge in One Year, Founder Sits on $3 Billion Fortune... Becomes "Most Expensive Stock"

Surges 10%, Becomes More Expensive Than Moutai
Doubts Remain Over Whether Yuanze Can Escape the "Moutai Curse"

In the Chinese stock market, semiconductor company Yuanzhe Technology (Yuanzhe) has overtaken leading mainstream company Kweichow Moutai (Moutai) to claim the title of “the most expensive stock in China.”

According to local media reports on April 18, the previous day Yuanzhe’s share price soared 10.05% to close at 1,445 yuan on the Chinese stock market. In contrast, Moutai fell 3.8%, ending at 1,407.24 yuan.

With these contrasting performances, Yuanzhe replaced Moutai as the “most expensive A-share” (referring to ordinary shares issued by Chinese companies in mainland China in yuan) in the market.

Compared to 92.01 yuan on April 9 last year, Yuanzhe’s share price has surged approximately 14.7 times in about one year. The value of shares held by founder Zhang Xingang has risen to 15.28 billion yuan (around 3.2 trillion won).

Official website of Chinese semiconductor company Yuanzhe Technology

Yuanzhe specializes in the development, design, production, and sales of laser chips. The company shifted its focus from traditional telecommunications to AI computing, such as chips for data centers, leading to a significant improvement in its performance. Last year, its revenue jumped 138.5% from the previous year, reaching 601 million yuan (about 129.3 billion won).

In the case of Moutai, both revenue and profit declined last year for the first time since its listing in 2001. Last year's revenue was reported at around 168.8 billion yuan (about 36.3 trillion won), down 1.21% from the previous year.

According to Bloomberg, investors’ attention is shifting from traditional blue-chip stocks to advanced technology stocks, and Yuanzhe’s stock surge reflects the enthusiasm surrounding the AI supply chain.

On the other hand, there are questions about whether Yuanzhe can overcome the so-called “Moutai curse.” In August last year, several companies—including semiconductor design company (fabless) Cambricon Technologies—temporarily surpassed Moutai’s share price, only to be overtaken by Moutai again afterwards.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.