CITIC Securities: Domestic AI Chips, CPU Demand Surge Amid Compute Inflation

Computing Power Supply and Demand Dynamics

CITIC Securities research indicates sustained supply-demand strength in domestic computing capacity, with ongoing compute inflation. On the demand side, DeepSeek's Series A funding round reached up to 50 billion yuan, with core allocation directed toward computing resource expansion. Token consumption metrics show accelerating AI inference: Douyin's token consumption increased from 600 trillion per day in late 2023 to 1.2 quadrillion per day as of early April 2024.

Domestic Chip Penetration and CPU Demand Shift

On the supply side, domestic chip penetration is accelerating with improved supply capacity. According to IDC data, Chinese cloud AI accelerator domestic chip shipment share reached 41% in 2025, with Huawei leading at 812,000 units shipped. The hardware configuration ratio is shifting: CPU-to-GPU ratio may transition from the previous 1:8 to 1:1, driving a significant increase in CPU demand as Agent adoption accelerates.

Commercial Space Launch Catalysts

Commercial space is poised for concentrated catalytic events in the near term:

• Long March 10B: Maiden flight planned for mid-to-late May
• Starship Power Zhishenxing-1: Maiden flight planned for late May
• Blue Arrow Zhuque-3: First-stage recovery attempt planned for Q2 2024

These launches represent sequential milestones in China's commercial space sector development.