The Zhitong Finance App learned that CITIC Construction Investment released a research report saying that the test instruments, optical modules, and GPU/ASIC sectors continued to perform well in the first half of 2026, reflecting strong demand for AI computing power. Net profit from the 2026Q2 cable sector increased 205% year-on-year, and the fiber-optic cable boom continued to increase. The total capital expenditure of the four major North American cloud vendors in 2026Q2 was about US$171.2 billion, an increase of 78.6% over the previous year. The total capital expenditure is expected to be about US$73.25 billion in 2026 (median estimate), and it is expected to maintain a relatively rapid growth rate in 2027. The bank continues to be optimistic about AI development and maintains long-term optimism about the North American computing power industry chain and the domestic AI computing power industry chain.
CITIC Construction Investment's main views are as follows:
The revenue of the communications sector grew steadily, and profitability remained at a high level
2026H1, the A-share communications sector achieved revenue of 1401,074 billion yuan, up 5.83% year on year; net profit to mother was 146.363 billion yuan, up 6.14% year on year. The profit growth rate was slightly faster than revenue growth. The comprehensive gross margin of the 2026H1 communications sector was 28.10%, down 1.24pct year on year, and the net margin was 10.99%, down 0.11pct year on year. Looking at a single quarter, the 2026Q2 communications sector achieved revenue of 726.1 billion yuan, up 5.8% year on year, and net profit to mother of 91.6 billion yuan, up 6.89% year on year; comprehensive gross margin was 29.87%, down 1.63 pct year on year, and overall profitability remained steady.
Telecom operators are affected by VAT adjustments, and profits fall
The three major operators were affected by value-added tax adjustments. Combined, the personal terminal business faced some pressure. Revenue and profit declined. 2026H1 achieved total revenue of 999.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.53%, and realized net profit of 108 billion yuan to mother, a year-on-year decrease of 6.75%.
2026H1 test instruments, GPU/ASIC, optical module/optical device sectors showed outstanding performance, and Q2 cable sector profits increased dramatically
Outstanding net profit performance of 2026H1 includes testing instruments (593 million yuan, up 549% year on year), GPU/ASIC (2,912 billion yuan, up 401% year on year), and optical modules/optical devices (24.060 billion yuan, up 147% year on year). The top three net profit growth sectors in 2026Q2 were test instruments (489 million yuan, up 505% year on year), GPU/ASIC (1,968 billion yuan, up 245% year on year), and cable (6.958 billion yuan, up 205% year on year).
Public fund communications industry holdings are further concentrated in the optical communications sector
2026Q2, the market value of public fund communications industry holdings reached 794.492 billion yuan, accounting for 11.56% of the market value of holdings, a record high. The main holdings are concentrated in the optical communications sector. As of September 1, 2026, the Shenwan Communications Index PE-TTM was 57.04, at the 92.91% quantile in 5 years and 87.84% in 10 years.
risk analysis
Changes in the international environment have an impact on the security and stability of the supply chain, affecting the progress of related companies' overseas expansion; the impact of tariffs exceeded expectations; the development of the artificial intelligence industry fell short of expectations, affecting the needs of companies related to cloud computing and computing power industry chains; increased market competition, leading to a rapid decline in gross margin; exchange rate fluctuations affected the exchange earnings and gross profit margin of export-oriented enterprises, including enterprises in the ICT equipment and optical module/optical device sector; the digital economy and digital China's construction fell short of expectations; telecom operators' cloud computing business development fell short of expectations; operators' capital expenditure fell short of expectations; cloud vendors Capital expenditure falls short of expectations; communication module and intelligent controller industry demand falls short of expectations.