Eastmoney Financial Breakfast Friday, February 27

Daily Highlights

Ministry of Commerce Responds to US-China Economic and Trade Consultations:

On February 26, the Ministry of Commerce held a routine press conference. When asked about the upcoming sixth round of US-China trade talks, spokesperson He Yongqian stated that both sides maintain communication through the US-China trade consultation mechanism at all levels. China is willing to work with the US to implement and uphold the consensus reached during the leaders’ summit in Busan and the February 4 phone call, through equal consultation, properly managing differences, expanding practical cooperation, maintaining healthy, stable, and sustainable US-China economic and trade relations, and better benefiting both countries and the world.

China’s AI Call Volume Surpasses the US for the First Time:

According to OpenRouter, the largest AI model API aggregation platform globally, during the week of February 9-15, Chinese models with 4.12 trillion tokens in calls exceeded the US models’ 2.94 trillion tokens for the first time. The week of February 16-22 saw Chinese models’ weekly calls surge to 5.16 trillion tokens, a 127% increase over three weeks, while US model calls dropped to 2.7 trillion tokens. Among the top five models by call volume, four are from Chinese companies: MiniMax’s M2.5, KimiK2.5 from Moonlit, GLM-5 from Zhipu, and V3.2 from DeepSeek. These four models account for 85.7% of the total calls in the top five.

Multiple Companies Respond to Zimbabwe’s Suspension of Lithium Exports:

Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Mines recently announced a suspension of all raw mineral and lithium concentrate exports (including in-transit goods). Media reports indicate that Zimbabwe’s lithium export ban is a phased measure, with an expected resumption within 1 to 4 weeks. Currently, companies have sufficient raw material inventories, so the impact on production is limited. A Yahua Group spokesperson said that companies with mining rights and beneficiation plants can reapply for export after submitting additional materials; Zhongkuang Resources stated that new approval procedures are forthcoming, and the ban may last less than a month, depending on approval processes.

Storage Market Fully Seller’s Market:

According to Wccftech and other sources citing Korea’s Dealsite, Apple has finalized LPDDR5X orders with Samsung’s semiconductor division (DS), with prices doubling previous levels. Apple recently held an emergency meeting with Samsung DS to discuss supply arrangements for the first half of this year to ensure supply chain stability. Industry insiders reveal: “Samsung DS initially aimed to increase prices by 60%. In negotiations, they first proposed a 100% increase to test the waters, and Apple accepted directly to maintain inventory, finalizing the price.”

Oil:

Recent reports indicate that Saudi Arabia is increasing its oil production and exports as an emergency response to escalating Middle East tensions. In June last year, Saudi increased oil exports by about 500,000 barrels per day and stored more crude overseas. Sources explain that Saudi’s increased output is to address emergencies and promote exports. One source said that if no accidents occur, Saudi plans to gradually reduce production and cut back to meet OPEC+ quotas.

Renminbi Exchange Rate:

Right after the Spring Festival holiday, the RMB exchange rate surged. In just three trading days, onshore and offshore RMB against USD appreciated rapidly, with phase gains approaching 600 basis points, breaking through 6.87, 6.85, and even 6.83 levels, reaching the highest since April 2023. Many analysts believe the appreciation is supported by fundamentals and corporate needs, remaining within a reasonable range, with little expectation of external intervention.

Food Safety in Food Delivery:

At a press conference on February 26, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that the “Regulations on Supervision and Management of Food Safety Responsibilities of Online Catering Operators” will be officially implemented on June 1. The regulations specify management responsibilities for delivery platforms regarding merchant qualification review, information disclosure, process control, and issue handling. Platforms are required to be responsible upon registration, accountable upon listing, and liable upon operation, embedding food safety responsibilities into every link, process, and decision.

Cross-border RMB Interbank Financing:

The People’s Bank of China issued a notice on RMB cross-border interbank financing. It states that domestic banks are supported to meet market demand and conduct RMB cross-border interbank financing in compliance with laws and risk controls. Domestic Chinese-funded, foreign-funded, and joint-venture banks should be managed centrally by their head offices, and all RMB cross-border interbank financing should be included under risk management and internal controls, following a substance-over-form principle.

Hot Topics

Cloud Computing:

Europe’s largest data center operator and cloud service provider Hetzner announced that due to “significant cost increases across multiple IT sectors,” all product and service prices will be raised starting April 1, 2026, including cloud services, dedicated servers, storage, and load balancers, with substantial increases. This price adjustment will affect new orders and existing subscriptions at data centers in Europe, the US, and Singapore.

AI Programming:

Huawei Cloud’s CodeArts intelligent coding agent beta was released on the 26th, providing developers and enterprises with engineering-capable AI coding solutions. It is based on Huawei’s massive codebase, integrating code large models, IDE, and autonomous development modes, covering code generation, development knowledge Q&A, unit test case generation, and more. It supports open-source models GLM-5.0, DeepSeek-V3.2, Huawei’s self-developed models, and Huawei’s HarmonyOS-specific models.

Optical Fiber:

Market consensus indicates that recent strength in optical fiber stocks is due to shifts in supply and demand. Huatai Securities notes that demand is driven by global AI data centers and UAVs (mainly military FPV drones requiring A2 fiber). On the supply side, the global capacity utilization of upstream optical fiber preform rods is nearing its peak, but expansion cycles are long (about 2 years), limiting short-term capacity increases.

Computing Hardware:

On the early morning of February 26, Nvidia, the global leader in AI hardware, reported its latest quarterly earnings: revenue of $68.1 billion in FY2026 Q4, up 73% year-over-year, surpassing analyst estimates of $65.7 billion. Nvidia’s guidance also exceeded market expectations, easing concerns about an AI bubble and confirming strong ongoing demand for AI.

Gas Turbines:

CITIC Construction Investment’s latest report states that AIDC construction is entering a rapid growth phase. From 2025 to 2028, the CAGR of US AI-driven power demand is estimated at about 55%, with a total demand exceeding 150 GW over three years, creating significant opportunities for supporting equipment. North America faces power shortages, making self-built power sources a trend, and gas turbines—with their quick response, high power adaptability, low cost, and high reliability—are becoming the primary power source for AIDC.

Environmental Protection:

The 2026 National Two Sessions are approaching, with several draft laws to be reviewed, including the draft Environmental and Ecological Law. This law, China’s second “law code,” covers pollution control, ecological protection, and green low-carbon development.

Power Grid Equipment:

According to foreign media reports, US tech giants Amazon, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Oracle will gather at the White House on March 4 to sign the “Taxpayer Protection Commitment” announced by Trump in his State of the Union address. A White House spokesperson said: “Under this plan, large tech companies will invest in new AI data centers and purchase or develop their own power supplies, ensuring that US electricity costs do not rise with increasing demand.”

Hard Tools:

Media reports indicate that tungsten raw material prices have continued to soar after the holiday, with tungsten powder exceeding 1,800 yuan/kg. The tooling industry is experiencing a new round of price hikes, with companies like Huari Precision and Xinrui Co. raising product prices. Industry insiders say that some leading tool manufacturers are operating at full capacity to clear backlog orders from the holiday, with delivery cycles extending from over a month to 2-3 months.

Company News

InnoChip: In 2025, revenue reached 3.152 billion yuan, up 35.77%; net loss attributable to parent company was 528 million yuan, compared to a net loss of 601 million yuan in the previous year. The company’s new orders in 2025 totaled 5.96 billion yuan, up 103.41%, with over 73% related to AI computing power and over 50% in data processing.

Baidu Group: Q4 revenue was 32.74 billion yuan, up 5% quarter-over-quarter, with market estimates at 32.66 billion yuan. Baidu reported a non-GAAP net profit of 3.9 billion yuan in Q4. In the same quarter, cloud infrastructure revenue was 5.8 billion yuan, with AI high-performance computing subscription revenue up 143% YoY.

Puran Co.: In 2025, total revenue was 2.32 billion yuan, up 28.62%; net profit was 208 million yuan, down 28.79%. The company continues to iterate and optimize storage chips and research next-generation technologies, increasing R&D investment in “storage+” chips.

Philihua: The company notes high market interest in electronic fabrics and their applications in electronic circuit manufacturing. Its ultra-thin quartz electronic fabric is currently in small batch testing and customer certification. The company expects 5% of total revenue in 2025 to come from quartz electronic fabric (unaudited).

COSCO Shipping: Operations are normal. Due to multiple factors affecting supply and demand, the international oil tanker market remains strong, with significant asset price increases; demand for Cape, Panama, and other dry bulk ships remains robust, and the BDI index during the Spring Festival season exceeded industry expectations.

Hudian Co.: The company is planning major projects, including: (1) selling its secondary subsidiary Huangshi Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. to its actual controller; (2) its wholly owned subsidiary Kunshan Huli Microelectronics is planning to acquire land use rights and buildings for a new PCB manufacturing project; (3) planning to acquire all shares of an independent third-party warehousing company for production facilities. Huli Micro’s new project has significant uncertainties.

BeiGene: In 2025, total revenue was 38.205 billion yuan, up 40.4%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.422 billion yuan, turning profitable year-over-year.

Leyard: To date, the company has established cooperation with many well-known domestic and international robot manufacturers, covering hardware sales, motion training, and motion capture training centers.

China Tianying: The company has signed its first global supply order for electric methanol with a leading international energy company, marking its entry into the mainstream international energy supply system. It is also in active negotiations with multiple international energy and shipping companies for electric methanol supply, aiming to secure new orders and strengthen its leadership in the global green methanol market.

Wanshun New Materials: The company’s self-developed high-alkali aluminum foil for batteries has high and stable alkali values, improving adhesion with slurry and aluminum foil, ensuring uniform coating, reducing resistance, and enhancing battery charge/discharge efficiency and cycle stability. It is also suitable for sodium-ion battery electrodes. High-alkali aluminum foil has entered small batch supply.

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Global Markets

US-Iran Talks: Iran and the US concluded a new round of indirect negotiations in Geneva. Oman and Iran’s foreign ministers have issued signals of “major progress” and “close to consensus,” with an anonymous US official describing the talks as “positive.” Both sides will hold technical discussions in Vienna next week and plan to meet again at a later date.

Google’s New Model Unveiled: Early Friday, Google announced the launch of its new image generation model Nano Banana 2. Following its debut of Gemini 2.5 Flash in late August last year, Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash) is praised for its highly realistic character consistency, natural language understanding, and 3D modeling capabilities, sparking global enthusiasm and solidifying Google’s position in AI applications. Google states that Nano Banana 2 combines the image quality, reasoning ability, and world knowledge of Nano Banana Pro with the “lightning-fast” generation speed of the Flash model.