Moore Threads and MetaX return to profit as HBM shortage clouds outlook
Moore Threads posted a 49.26 million yuan adjusted net profit, its first quarterly profit, while MetaX reported 26.5 million yuan, according to SCMP.
Chinese AI chipmakers Moore Threads and MetaX both returned to profit in the third quarter, the South China Morning Post reported, as a shortage of high-bandwidth memory and rising component prices weigh on their outlook.
Moore Threads recorded its first quarterly profit, with an adjusted net profit of 49.26 million yuan, and its third-quarter revenue grew 1774% year-on-year. Its gross margin for January-September fell by more than 8 percentage points year-on-year.
MetaX reported a third-quarter net profit of 26.5 million yuan, its second profitable quarter this year. The company raised the price of its flagship C600 chip, which entered mass production this year, and lowered its revenue gross margin forecasts for 2027 and 2028. It also secured orders for about 20,000 C600A units from JD.com, while mass shipments of its next-generation C700 may be delayed until late 2027.
Memory supply is the main pressure point. The factory shipment price of 36GB HBM3e modules recently exceeded 4,000 dollars in the grey market, up from around 500 dollars before the memory supply crunch.
Elsewhere in the sector, Cambricon Technologies held 11.6 billion yuan in inventory at the end of September, up 3.42 billion yuan from the previous quarter, and booked 502 million yuan in inventory impairment losses for January-September. The company supplied its MLU692 chip on a trial basis to major cloud service providers in the third quarter and expects shipments to cloud customers to reach 350,000 units next year alongside its next-generation MLU580.
Iluvatar CoreX demonstrated its new Tiangai 300 GPU last month and claimed performance similar to or better than Nvidia's H200 on real AI workloads.
Quick answers
Did Moore Threads make a profit in the third quarter?
Yes. Moore Threads posted an adjusted net profit of 49.26 million yuan in the third quarter, its first quarterly profit.
What was MetaX's third-quarter profit?
MetaX reported a third-quarter net profit of 26.5 million yuan, its second profitable quarter this year.
Why is HBM supply a concern for Chinese AI chipmakers?
The factory shipment price of 36GB HBM3e modules recently exceeded 4,000 dollars in the grey market, compared with around 500 dollars before the memory supply crunch.