SMIC Reports Record Q3 Revenue as AI Chip Foundry Prices Trend Upward

On November 13, 2026, SMIC held its third-quarter earnings briefing, where co-CEO Zhao Haijun outlined the company's quarterly performance and commented on demand and pricing trends in AI-adjacent chip manufacturing. According to SMIC's financial report, revenue for the first three quarters reached 606.18 billion yuan, up 22.4% year on year, while net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company stood at 73.14 billion yuan, a 91.6% increase year on year. Within that period, third-quarter revenue was 219.83 billion yuan, up 28.1% year on year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 28.47 billion yuan, up 87.6% year on year. Zhao noted that total third-quarter sales set a new high at 31.9 billion dollars, rising 6.1% quarter on quarter and exceeding the upper end of guidance. He attributed the beat to faster-than-expected growth in customer pull for AI-adjacent chips, including BCD, specialized memory, and Control products, compared with three months earlier.

On volume, Zhao said SMIC accelerated verification of new production lines and flexibly reallocated existing capacity, pushing quarterly shipments past 3 million wafers for the first time, a 5.7% increase quarter on quarter. On price, he explained that rates negotiated with customers were being implemented in batches, the product mix continued to improve, and average operating unit price rose 1.8% quarter on quarter, keeping foundry prices for these chips on an upward path. Third-quarter capacity utilization reached 97.3%, up from 93.7% in the second quarter. Zhao said the gain came from urgent customer demand, which led SMIC to slow engineering and R&D wafer runs and add 20,000 wafers of monthly capacity to support shipments. Management also projected that gross margin and capacity utilization would decline quarter on quarter in Q4, which is where the situation currently stands.