AI Chip Firm Cambricon Reports 95% YoY Increase in Net Losses

AI computer chip technology company Cambricon on February 25 released its 2021 annual performance report, showing revenue of 721 million yuan ($114.3 million) during the period, a year-on-year increase of 57.12%. The Beijing-based firm’s report also revealed that net losses attributable to the parent were 847 million yuan, compared with 435 million yuan in the same period last year, an expansion of 94.98%.

Cambricon’s revenue mainly comes from cloud services and edge computing product lines, as well as an intelligent computing cluster business. During the reporting period, MLU220 chips and accelerator cards of the firm’s edge computing product line have been applied in many leading enterprises, completing the sale of nearly one million pieces. Revenue from the edge computing product line achieved breakthrough growth compared with the same period last year.

Relying on the benchmarking effect and stellar reputation of the company’s previous projects, Cambricon won the bid for the infrastructure construction project of an intelligent computing center in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China, and the cluster business income increased significantly.

Cambricon explained that the increase in losses last year was mainly due to its rising R&D expenses, share-based payments in management expenses, and sales expenses.

Last year, the firm continued to increase investment in R&D and actively recruited talented personnel. R&D expenses increased together with share-based payment expenses. In addition, due to the company’s active efforts in smart chip marketing and ecosystem construction, sales expenses have also increased.

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According to financial data from Cambricon covering the past four years, its total operating income was 7.8433 million yuan in 2017, 117 million yuan in 2018, 444 million yuan in 2019 and 459 million yuan in 2020. Its net losses also maintained a high level, totaling 381 million yuan, 41.0465 million yuan, 1.179 billion yuan and 435 million yuan from 2017 to 2020, respectively.

Chinese commercial information platform Qichacha shows that Cambricon focuses on the R&D and technological innovation of AI chip products. Since its establishment in 2016, Cambricon has developed smart chips and accelerator cards covering terminal devices, edge computing and cloud services. On July 20, 2020, Cambricon was listed to the Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market).