The huge computing power consumption brought by the wave of large models is making the AI server marketSet off a frenzy to grab orders and raise prices. Industry insiders said on Wednesday that it has become a consensus that server demand will increase significantly, and there will be great momentum for future order growth. Many of its own AI servers have started shipping. At the same time, a research report by Guosheng Securities on October 29 quoted data showing that as it becomes more difficult to get a card, currentlyThe quotation price of H800 server has risen to 3 million yuan/unit.
Industry analysts say that the "Hundred Model War" is essentially a battle for AI servers. Faced with the huge demand in the market, server companies, major Internet manufacturers, and large AI model companies have accelerated their deployment this year. Tianfeng International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released the latest supply chain survey this week and pointed out that benefiting from higher-than-expected demand for AI servers from enterprises, Dell has requested to support production bottlenecks.AI server parts production expanded significantly by approximately 200%. At the same time, cross-border players such as Hengrun Holdings, Lotus Health, and Zhenshitong also stepped in.Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on GPU servers.
It is worth mentioning that the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned from industry chain sources on Thursday that Nvidia has developed the latest improved series of chips for China. The news stimulated the AI server leaderInspur Information reached a strong daily limit at the end of the day. According to media reports on Friday, Inspur responded that it had not received notification yet and would continue to communicate with the other party. A longer-term look at the company’s stock price since its June highThe cumulative maximum decline has reached nearly 60%.
Inspur Information stock price time-sharing chart on November 9
The competitive landscape of AI servers is reshaped: Fii, the foundry industry, came from behind to become the leading brand. Inspur Information ranks first in the market but is "surviving in the cracks"?
There are many players in the server industry. According to the overall business model, they can be divided into those with independent design rights for server solutions.Brand server manufacturers, including Dell, Inspur Information, Lenovo, etc., and OEM based on plans designed by downstream customersWhite label manufacturers (ODM), mainly represented by Fii, Hon Hai, Inventec, etc..
In terms of market structure, Tianfeng Securities’ research report on May 4 stated that,Currently, the leading manufacturers of AI servers are Industrial Fii and Inspur Information. Public information shows that Inspur Information accounts for as much as 90% of Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu’s AI servers. In 2021, it will account for 20%.Ranked first in market share. Among white-label server manufacturers, Fii’s cloud computing server shipments continue to rank first in the world. Zhongtai Securities’ research report on July 23 pointed out that Fii Industrial hasManufacturing related AI servers for NVIDIA, including HGXH100 and future HGXH800, etc.
Looking further, the Zhongtai Securities research report stated that compared with white-brand server manufacturers, branded server manufacturers have strong competitiveness by relying on a large number of core patents and technical barriers. Inspur is the brand leader. Guotai Junan’s research report on July 25 shows that the company has full-stack AI capabilities that integrate software and hardware, and its AI computing products have outstanding performance and have topped authoritative performance evaluation lists many times. In May, it was also disclosed that an institutional survey stated that the companyHigh-performance servers equipped with the latest NVIDIA H800 GPU can meet the large model training needs of leading customers.
However, the current actual performance and operating conditions of Inspur Information are not as good as they appear on the surface. The third quarterly report shows that the net profit in the first three quarters was 787 million yuan.A year-on-year decrease of 49.12%, Q3 single quarter net profit was 461 million yuan,down 22% year-on-year. The company explained that it was mainly affected by factors such as the tight supply of global GPUs and related special chips. According to the WeChat public account article on September 7, "The No. 1 Domestic Server, Dropped by 40 Billion in Three Months," Inspur InformationHighly dependent on upstream chip suppliers, previously disclosed that Nvidia is the company’s second largest supplier. In recent years,Net profit margin has always been between 2% and 3%, what is actually done is the hard work of assembly,Earn hard-earned money.
According to exclusive news from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily on Thursday, NVIDIA may launch the latest improved version of AI chips for China. The news stimulated Inspur InformationIt rose close to the daily limit in late trading, with a turnover of nearly 5.5 billion yuan.. After the United States updated its export controls on AI chips on October 17, the company’s stock priceThe lower limit was sealed the next day, the market value evaporated by more than 5 billion in a single day. Looking over a long period of time, Inspur Information’s stock price has been falling since it hit a record high in June, riding on the wave of AI.The largest cumulative decline so far has been cut in half.
Inspur Information stock price time-sharing chart on October 18
Looking at Fii, the leading AI server OEM, some industry analysts said that although the gross profit margin of ODM manufacturers' server business is generally low, they have deeply integrated with cloud customers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, andStrengthen cooperation with upstream giants NVIDIA, AMD and other suppliers, a steady stream of orders has kept its shipments and sales growing. Fii’s Q3 net profit surged 28.4% year-on-year to 6.34 billion yuan, handing overThe best three-quarter profit performance since listing.
Zhongtai Securities’ research report on November 6 stated that Fii’s Q3 single-quarter profit hit a record high, and its AI business grew strongly. worldwideThe continuous explosion of the AI computing power market has driven the company's AI server shipments to rise. This year, it began to develop and mass-produce high-performance AI servers such as NVIDIA H100 and H800 for customers., while continuing to deepen cooperation with NVIDIA. In addition, the company's 400G switch shipments are increasing rapidly, and 800G switch products are expected to begin increasing volume in 24 years.
In the secondary market, although the stock price of Fii Industrial Co., Ltd. also performed unsatisfactory,The largest cumulative decline since the July high has exceeded 50%. However, it is worth mentioning that the day after the above-mentioned AI chip export control regulations were announced, the companyThe stock price fell more than 6% at the beginning of the session but then gradually pulled back, finally closing down 2.08%..
Time-sharing chart of Fii’s stock price on October 18
Zhongtai Securities’ research report mentioned that with the rapid development of the Internet/cloud computing business, its demand for white-brand servers has arisen, which has brought certain changes to the server competition landscape. Industry analysts further stated that due to its supply chain, production capacity and customer advantages,With the support of the AI wave, the overall shipment volume and market share of ODM server manufacturers are continuing to grow.. It can be seen that driven by the ebb and flow of brand server manufacturers and white brand server manufacturers, the entire server market in the future willThe competitive landscape will be further reshaped.
A group of listed companies in the A-share market are frantically grabbing "high-priced tickets" for AI servers and stepping into the gate of downstream computing power. "NVIDIA GPU" has become a stock price that has skyrocketed. There are still concerns about the actual implementation of the password in the future.
After all, as a link in the computing power industry chain, AI servers have been robbed a lot amid the popularity of large models this year.In fact, there is a huge demand for computing power.. According to the research institute DIGITIMES on October 30, there will be a gap of more than 35% between the demand and supply of high-end AI servers this year.
Facing the new trend of computing power, AI servers have become a key link. The price of AI servers remains high. The price of an AI server equipped with 8 NVIDIA H800 GPUs is approaching 3 million yuan/unit.Many companies can’t stop stocking up like crazy, and even attracted cross-border players such as Lotus Health, Hengrun Shares, Golden Pheasant Shares, and True Vision. According to incomplete compilation by the Financial Associated Press,Litong Electronics, Hengrun Co., Ltd., Lotus Health, True Vision, Golden Pheasant Co., Ltd., Huina Technology, etc.Listed companies have recently announced contracts to purchase GPU servers. The details are as follows:
Although the AI servers purchased by the above-mentioned cross-border players have not yet brought obvious performance results, most of them have already tasted the joy of skyrocketing stock prices. Hongbo shares, which were first laid out last year, became a "monster" in one battle, increasing 10 times since the low point in May last year; Lotus Health's related layout has continued to rise by the limit for two trading days since the announcement.The largest cumulative increase so far this year is 224%; Hengrun shares also rose by more than 7% on the day after the relevant announcement.The largest cumulative increase during the year was 194%; Recently, the stock price of Zhenshitong, a new bull stock, has continued to rise between October 16 and October 26.Recorded 9 daily limits.
If the AI server is like a ticket to cross-border development, thenThe label of NVIDIA GPU is like a front-row ticket that enjoys more "advantages". Most of these bull stocks that started their surge relied on purchasing AI servers to ride on the glory of NVIDIA GPU.. When Hongbo Co., Ltd. accepted an institutional survey, it stated that the company cooperates with NVIDIA in areas such as intelligent computing centers, and NVIDIA will provide NGC (NVIDIA GPUCLOUD NVIDIA GPU cloud service) and other related technical and document support required by the innovation empowerment center. Lotus Health’s announcement shows that the procurement contract item is for H3C Information to deliver 330 Nvidia H800 GPU series computing servers to Lotus Science and Technology. Jinji shares disclosed on the interactive platform that the company’s planned 10000P computing power project uses various advanced hybrid intelligent computing power chips including NVIDIA H800.
However, looking forward to the later period, the capital highlights still mainly depend on the actual business implementation and performance in the later period. According to calculations by Soochow Securities based on data from September this year, the gross profit margin of the computing power rental A800 is about 40%, the net profit margin is about 20%, and the H800 will be even higher. In contrast,The gross profit margin of Lotus Health's online and offline channels in the past two years has not exceeded 20%; the gross profit margin of Hengrun Shares in domestic sales will exceed 30% in 2021, but by 2022, the gross profit margin in domestic and foreign sales will not exceed 20%..
Lotus Health and Hengrun Shares have recently issued announcements warning of risks. Lotus Health stated that the company is responsible for investing in and building an intelligent computing center that requires the purchase of a large amount of fixed assets, and will obtain financial support through its own funds combined with credit from financial institutions, financial leasing and other financing methods.May put financial pressure on the company. Hengrun Shares clarified that the company’s current computing power planning goal is more than 40,000P computing power. This goal is only the company’s vision. Shanghai Runliuchi was established on August 2, 2023, and has been established for a short time.This business is still in the early start-up stage, and there is still a large gap between the company's vision and the company's vision.. The computing power leasing industry is an emerging market and there is great uncertainty in the future.