Optical technology company Xizhi listed in Hong Kong on April 28, 2026, and Haiguang Xinzheng followed on June 29 of the same year. Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent are involved in both companies, either as existing shareholders or as investors at the time of listing, giving observers more material to judge how far years of investment have translated into products and revenue. "Optical interconnects," which use light to transmit data between GPUs and other components, and "optical computing," which uses light itself to perform calculations, differ in both their uses and their stage of commercialization. In October, a Xizhi executive likewise explained that the two will be industrialized on different timelines. As the targets of Chinese tech giants' investment have widened from optical semiconductor materials to optical modules and GPU-to-GPU connections, what matters is not only the number of companies they have backed, but what has actually been turned into products at each stage, and whether it has led to real production, use and revenue.
Seven Chinese tech giants' stakes and the 2026 listings
Xizhi's April listing documents and Haiguang Xinzheng's June announcement show that the seven companies' involvement in optical technology is far from uniform. Some have held shares for some time and supported development, while others took part as "cornerstone investors" in the IPO, agreeing to subscribe for shares under certain conditions. Huawei's investment agreement with a materials company was signed in 2020, so the seven companies below did not make new investments together in November 2026.
| Company | Confirmed investment or relationship | Contract date / point of confirmation |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei | Wholly owned subsidiary Hubble Investment signed an agreement to invest 30 million yuan in Xinyao. Its stake after the capital increase is planned to be 23.91% | Agreement dated December 10, 2020 |
| Alibaba | Shareholder in Haiguang Xinzheng. Wholly owned subsidiary Alibaba Investment is a cornerstone investor in Xizhi | Haiguang Xinzheng's June 2026 announcement, Xizhi's April 2026 prospectus |
| Tencent | Tencent Mobility holds 3,272,298 shares in Xizhi as an existing shareholder | First investment agreement on April 8, 2021. Share count from the April 27, 2026 allotment announcement |
| Xiaomi | Shareholder in Haiguang Xinzheng | Company announcement of June 29, 2026. Investment date not identified |
| Baidu | Beijing Baidu Biwei holds 791,028 shares in Xizhi as an existing shareholder | April 2026 prospectus. Year investment began not identified |
| ZTE | Wholly owned subsidiary ZTE Hong Kong is a cornerstone investor in Xizhi | April 2026 prospectus |
| Lenovo | Lenovo Group is a cornerstone investor in Xizhi | April 2026 prospectus |
These differences matter for understanding when each company put in money and what role it has played. An investment made as an existing shareholder involved from the development stage cannot be treated as the same funding round as a share subscription at the time of an IPO. The table also shows only the relationships that can be confirmed as of each contract or published document, so shareholding ratios as of November 2026 require separate verification. Moreover, the list of investors alone does not reveal how far the investee's technology has been put to practical use. For materials companies, clues to business progress include technical validation with customers and ongoing purchase agreements; for optical module companies, manufacturing capacity and sales; and for GPU interconnects, commercialization of products and track record of deployment.
Three stages supported by investment
The 2020 agreement signed by Huawei's wholly owned subsidiary Hubble Investment includes, in addition to a 30 million yuan investment, arrangements for technical validation with the recipients of the materials. Xinyao, the investee, makes gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) semiconductor substrates. According to Yunnan Germanium's disclosure, Xinyao was to supply substrates to a company affiliated with Hubble Investment and receive feedback on technical evaluation and product validation from actual use. It can be described as an investment contract that links more than the provision of funds: the supply of materials and technical validation on the user side.
However, at the time of the contract there was no plan fixing long-term purchase volumes or prices, and future purchase amounts were described as uncertain. Signing a supply agreement for technical validation is not the same as guaranteeing continued purchases of a certain volume. The disclosure also does not confirm that the investment was fully paid in, and it does not allow a judgment on supply terms as of 2026. Given these differences, Chinese tech giants' investment in optical technology can be organized into three stages: materials supply and validation, optical module mass production, and GPU interconnects.
| Stage | Investee and practical significance | Indicators of commercialization and timing |
|---|---|---|
| Materials supply and validation | Xinyao. The investment agreement specifies substrate supply and technical validation on the user side | Contract value of 30 million yuan in December 2020. At that time, long-term purchase volumes and prices were undetermined; actual purchase terms and the state of continued supply require separate verification |
| Optical module mass production | Haiguang Xinzheng. Alibaba and Xiaomi participate as shareholders | Total 2025 revenue of 1.221 billion yuan. In addition to sales of existing products, the testing and production stage of next-generation optical engines is a key indicator. Mass-production plans are as of June 2026 |
| GPU interconnects | Xizhi. Existing shareholders and IPO cornerstone investors are involved | Optical interconnect business accounted for 79.2% of 2025 total revenue. Product commercialization and deployment track record are the indicators. This figure is the company's revenue mix, not market share |
This comparison organizes the process each investee handles and the progress of its business based on investment contracts, listing documents and company announcements. It does not rank companies by comparing investment amounts or revenue from different periods, nor does it calculate total investment or return on investment. At the materials stage, what matters is whether customer validation leads to continued purchases; at the product stage, whether manufacturing and delivery can be done with stable quality and volume. Even where an investment is confirmed, that alone does not prove that the technology has been commercialized or that the business is profitable.
Optical module sales growth and mass-production plans for next-generation optical engines
According to Haiguang Xinzheng's announcement, the company's total revenue rose from 175 million yuan in 2023 to 862 million yuan in 2024 and 1.221 billion yuan in 2025. Its main products are high-speed optical modules and active optical cables, which transmit data using optical signals. These figures are company-wide revenue and do not represent sales of AI-related products alone.
What the company cites as a feature of its manufacturing setup is a system it calls "WIMO." According to its June 29 listing announcement, it handles everything in-house from incoming inspection of externally procured wafers through dicing, thinning, sorting, optical engine assembly and final product inspection. This refers to a manufacturing setup that links the processing of procured wafers to optical module assembly in-house; it does not mean the company makes the wafers themselves. Semiconductor fabrication and the subsequent processing and packaging steps need to be distinguished.
Taken together, the sales trend and the explanation of its manufacturing setup show that Haiguang Xinzheng's existing optical connectivity products have already reached a certain business scale. However, handling multiple manufacturing steps in-house does not necessarily mean it is better than competitors in yield or manufacturing cost. How far in-house production has progressed and how efficiently those processes are run need to be evaluated separately.
Next-generation products, meanwhile, are still on the way to commercialization. As of June 2026, the company was exhibiting 3.2T and 6.4T NPO (Near-Packaged Optics) optical engines. NPO is a packaging approach that shortens the distance electrical signals must travel by placing optical components close to compute chips such as GPUs. On its collaboration with Biwin Storage on advanced packaging, the company said it was packaging samples and that customer evaluation testing was under way.
The plan Haiguang Xinzheng presented in June called for starting small-volume production in the second half of 2026 and expanding production scale and deliveries in 2027. This is, however, only a plan as of June 2026, and is not a track record showing that mass production had been completed as of November. While sales growth can be confirmed for existing optical module products, whether a stable production and delivery system can be built for the next-generation optical engines as well will have to be judged by future test results and progress toward mass production.
Optical connectivity at 79.2% of revenue, and the commercialization gap with optical computing
According to Xizhi's April 2026 prospectus, the company's total revenue for 2025 was 106.368 million yuan. Of this, the optical interconnect business accounted for 84.277 million yuan, or 79.2%, and the optical computing business for 22.091 million yuan, or 20.8%. All amounts are in renminbi, and revenue includes income such as technology development services, so it does not represent sales of chip products alone. At present, the optical interconnect business, which transmits data between GPUs and other components, is the center of revenue rather than the business of computing with light. However, the 79.2% figure is Xizhi's own 2025 revenue mix and does not show the composition of the optical communications market as a whole or market share.
The timing of the businesses' launch can also be confirmed from the prospectus. Xizhi recorded no optical interconnect revenue in 2023, but commercialized "Scale-up EPS" in 2024 and "Scale-up OCS" in 2025. The company says these products have already been deployed in three computing platforms, each equipped with GPUs on the scale of a thousand units. The company's explanation is that it has moved into a stage of earning actual business revenue by commercializing products for connecting large numbers of GPUs at high speed.
Still, the outlook for commercialization differs between optical interconnects and optical computing. In Xizhi's October 14 announcement, COO Wang Long's remarks at an event on October 12 are presented. Wang explained that optical interconnects are on the verge of large-scale industrialization, while optical computing is in transition from a stage where it is technically usable to one where it is economically viable. The expectation is that industrialization of optical computing will lag that of optical interconnects, indicating that the company recognizes a gap remains between technology that works and a commercially viable business.
On packaging approaches, Wang also predicts that NPO will spread and expand before CPO (Co-Packaged Optics). CPO is an approach that mounts optical components and compute chips such as GPUs in the same package. NPO and CPO are both technologies for shortening the distance high-speed electrical signals must travel, but they differ in implementation methods and manufacturing challenges. However, NPO adoption coming first is the view of a Xizhi executive, not a fixed deployment schedule for the industry as a whole. Nor have customer names or independent third-party performance comparisons or validation results been disclosed for the deployments the company describes in thousand-GPU computing platforms.
One key milestone ahead is the plan Haiguang Xinzheng set out in June 2026 to expand production scale and deliveries in 2027. The question is whether it can move on to mass production and continued supply of next-generation optical engines after customer evaluation testing. For Xizhi, the focus is whether adoption of its commercialized optical interconnect products broadens and leads to continuing revenue. In assessing Chinese tech giants' investment in optical technology, it is essential to confirm not only investees' technology development and product announcements, but also actual manufacturing and delivery, continued use by customers, and the accumulation of revenue.