Yuanjie Semiconductor rose to ¥1,439 and became mainland China’s highest-priced stock

Yuanjie took the top spot on China’s mainland stock market on Friday, pushing past Kweichow Moutai and putting chipmakers at the center of the session. Shares of the Chinese laser chip company rose as much as 9.6% to a record ¥1,439.

At the same time, Moutai, China’s biggest distiller, logged its worst drop in a year after reporting its first annual decline in both sales and profit in 20 years.

The numbers this year also tell the story. Yuanjie’s stock has more than doubled in 2026. The STAR 50 Index is up 5.8%. A gauge of onshore consumer staples stocks has fallen more than 4% as weak domestic demand kept pressure on that group.

Other Chinese optical names rose on Friday after Zhongji Innolight posted first-quarter earnings above expectations. Goldman Sachs also turned more upbeat on the sector. Zhongji, a major Yuanjie customer, climbed as much as 5.8% to a record high.

Chinese traders lift chipmakers as AI demand keeps the tech trade alive

The move in China came as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and ASML posted solid results. Demand for AI chips remained high. TSMC said first-quarter profit jumped 58%, beat estimates, and hit another record. It was the company’s fourth straight quarter of record profit.

On the earnings call, Chief Executive C.C. Wei said, “AI-related demand continues to be extremely robust.” Even so, TSMC shares fell about 3% on Thursday.

The market reaction showed how hard it has become for big chipmakers to impress investors. Sixty-one percent of TSMC’s first-quarter revenue came from high-performance computing, the segment that includes AI chips made for its largest customer, Nvidia.

That was up from 55% in the prior quarter. Even with that mix shift, the stock still moved lower.

ASML faced the same pressure. The Dutch chip equipment maker fell as much as 6.5% on Wednesday, then cut the loss and closed about 2.5% lower. Shares slipped another 3% on Thursday.

The company posted strong first-quarter results and raised guidance, but that only matched expectations. Concerns about lower sales to China also stayed in focus.

European startups chase funding while Washington tightens curbs on China

The weak stock response in TSMC and ASML now hangs over the wider chipmakers group as earnings season rolls on. Last quarter, Nvidia reported blowout fourth-quarter results and still got hit with a 5% sell-off. High expectations have become a problem across the sector.

Investors are backing European startups trying to build alternatives to Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Dutch startup Euclyd, backed by former ASML chief executive Peter Wennink, is discussing a fundraising round of at least 100 million euros, or about $118 million, founder Bernardo Kastrup reportedly told CNBC.

In the U.K., Optalysys is planning a raise of more than $100 million later this year. British startup Fractile and France’s Arago are also reportedly seeking nine-figure rounds. 

In 2026 alone, investors have already put more than $200 million into the Netherlands’ Axelera and Britain’s Olix.

The race is also changing. Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company after its gaming chips were turned into tools for training AI models.

Now attention is moving to AI inference. Nvidia is building systems for that market too, but several European startups say their technology can do the job more efficiently.

Meanwhile, Washington is still trying to restrict China’s access to chip equipment. The latest version of the MATCH Act, allegedly seen by Reuters, was scaled back but still kept a new nationwide restriction on ASML’s deep ultraviolet immersion lithography machines.

The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 2 with bipartisan support. It aims to close gaps in restrictions on chip equipment sold to China and align the United States with Japan and the Netherlands. MATCH stands for Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act.

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