"The first stock of AI chips" Cambrian (688256. SH) once again hit a new high.

On January 10, Cambrian's share price opened high, and the intraday stock price once touched 777.77 yuan per share, with a market value of more than 310 billion yuan. As of the close, the company's share price closed at 729.97 yuan per share, an increase of 2.48%, with a total market value of about 304.7 billion yuan. During the day, the trading volume of Cambrian stocks reached 94,400 lots, with a turnover of 7.035 billion yuan.

For Cambrian's current round of stock price rise, there are also different opinions in the market. In addition to the influence of the concept of AI, the drive of passive index funds may become one of the important driving forces.

Compared with Cambrian, which is in the AI chip track, the stock price performance of listed companies in the generative large model track is relatively sluggish. As one of the earliest companies in China to launch large-scale model products, Baidu Group's stock price has fallen by more than 33% since 2024.

Founded in 2016, Cambrian has been working in the field of AI chips for many years.

On July 20, 2020, on the first day of listing, Cambrian's stock price rose by more than 200%. The market value reached 85 billion yuan. However, after a short "carnival", the company's stock price began to decline, reaching a record low of 46.59 yuan per share in April 2022.

By the end of 2022, ChatGPT has sprung up, which in turn has detonated the AI track. As an AI chip company, Cambrian's stock price has risen accordingly. Since the beginning of 2024, Cambrian's share price has risen by 440.88%, and the total market value has also risen by more than 250 billion yuan.

At present, Cambrian has become the second highest listed company in A-shares, second only to Kweichow Moutai. In the Science and Technology Innovation Board, the company's total market capitalization ranks third, second only to SMIC and Haiguang Information.

Cambrian's stock price has risen, and the value of Chen Tianshi, the company's actual controller, has also risen. In the 2024 Hurun Report, Chen Tianshi ranks 140th with a value of 32 billion yuan, becoming the richest man in Nanchang. Based on the company's stock price on December 18, the market value of the 119 million shares of the company directly held by Chen Tianshi is about 87.3 billion yuan.

For Cambrian's current round of stock price rise, there are different opinions in the market. In addition to being driven by the concept of AI, there are also views that the company's stock price rise is driven by passive index funds.

Since 2024, passive investment in A-shares has developed rapidly, and the scale of passive index funds represented by ETFs has grown significantly. At the end of the third quarter of 2024, the scale of passive index funds surpassed that of active equity funds for the first time.

The

growth of passive index funds has also allowed index constituents to gain more liquidity support. Because Cambrian has been a constituent stock of many important indices such as the Science and Technology Innovation 50 Index, CSI 300 Index, CSI A500 Index, and CNI Chip Index. As a result, many passive funds hold shares in the company.

According to the data, as of the end of September 2024, there are 5 investment funds among Cambrian's top ten shareholders, including ChinaAMC SSE Science and Technology Innovation Board 50, E Fund SSE Science and Technology Innovation Board 50, and ChinaAMC CNI Semiconductor Chips. In the third quarter of 2024, all three index funds have increased their positions in Cambrian, and Huatai Pineapple CSI 300 has also become a new top 10 shareholder.

On November 29, 2024, China Securities Index Company made regular adjustments to the sample of the SSE 50 Index, and Cambrian was included in the SSE 50 Index. As one of the important A-share indexes, there are also many passive products tracking the SSE 50 Index, with a total scale of 163.577 billion yuan as of November 29, 2024. Therefore, with the Cambrian transfer to the Shanghai Stock Exchange 50 Index, it is expected that there will be a large amount of money to buy the company's shares. According to Guosen Securities Research and calculation, Cambrian is included in the Shanghai Stock Exchange 50 Index, and the estimated net transfer of funds is 3.567 billion.

In December 2024, Cambrian was also included in the list of alternative stocks for the FTSE China A50 Index, with the possibility of being included in the index. If Cambrian is included in the index in the future, the amount of money that passively increases the company's stock holdings may continue to increase.

Since the end of 2022, the AI boom driven by ChatGPT has stirred up the global AI industry to this day. The concept of AI also set off a boom in the capital market for a time. But two years later, the once-popular concept of AI has also diverged. Hardware companies represented by AI chips are still in the center of the vortex, while large model companies are relatively silent.

In the third quarter of 2024, the company achieved operating income of 121 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 284.59%, and recorded a net loss attributable to the parent of 194 million yuan.