The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Growth Tier Welcomes Its First "Graduates," with Cambrian and Five Other Companies to Remove the "U" and Exit the Tier

On the evening of March 12, Cambrian disclosed its 2025 annual report, achieving a net profit of 2.059 billion yuan for the year. This marks the company’s official removal of the “unprofitable” label, becoming the first “graduated” company in the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier.

As the annual report season unfolds, five companies—BeiGene, OBi Zhongguang, NuoCheng Jianhua, BeiXin Life, and Jingjin Electric—are expected to gradually shed the “U” designation from their tiers.

The first batch of “graduates” from the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier is about to emerge.

Cambrian (688256.SH) disclosed its 2025 annual report on the evening of March 12. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 6.497 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 453.21%; net profit attributable to the parent was 2.059 billion yuan, with a non-recurring profit of 1.77 billion yuan after deductions.

In another announcement, Cambrian stated that its net profit attributable to the parent and its non-recurring net profit for 2025 were both positive, meeting the criteria of “a company that was unprofitable at listing but first achieved profitability.” The company’s A-shares will remove the “U” special marker on March 16, 2026, and the stock abbreviation will change from “Cambrian-U” to “Cambrian,” with the stock code 688256 remaining unchanged.

Industry insiders note that the long-term cultivation of “hard tech” companies in the capital market is beginning to bear fruit. Cambrian (688256.SH), BeiGene (688235.SH), OBi Zhongguang (688322.SH), NuoCheng Jianhua (688428.SH), BeiXin Life (688712.SH), and Jingjin Electric (688280.SH) are expected to exit the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier after the annual report disclosures. These companies cover strategic emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, new energy, and high-end medical devices, representing the forefront of China’s tech industry breakthroughs.

In their early development stages, these companies invested heavily in R&D, accumulated core technologies, and relied on major national projects and key research initiatives to overcome critical core technologies, ultimately achieving product commercialization and volume growth. As a benchmark for domestic AI chips, Cambrian’s growth path is highly representative. From 2020 to 2024, the company invested over 5.6 billion yuan in R&D, iterated multiple chip products, and completed key transformations within five years of listing. With the explosive growth in AI computing power demand in 2025, Cambrian has become a trendsetter. The annual report shows that the company’s revenue structure in 2025 underwent a significant shift—from primarily intelligent computing clusters at the start to a focus on commercial cloud chip product lines, with annual net profit surpassing 2 billion yuan for the first time, entering a stage of “self-sustaining growth.”

Similarly, in the innovative drug sector—following the “Double Ten Laws” (note: the average cost to develop and bring an innovative drug to market exceeds $1 billion, with R&D taking over 10 years)—BeiGene has spent over a decade bringing its core product, BeiYueZe (Zanubrutinib), from laboratory research to the global market, establishing a leading position in the BTK inhibitor field. In 2025, the company achieved revenue of 38.205 billion yuan, a 40.4% increase; net profit of 1.422 billion yuan, successfully turning losses into profits.

The other four companies are also reaching operational inflection points. BeiXin Life, a cardiovascular diagnostic device company newly registered in the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier, achieved “U” removal in its first year of listing; NuoCheng Jianhua, in the blood tumor field, turned profitable through drug sales and business development; OBi Zhongguang, a leader in 3D vision, benefited from the accelerated penetration of 3D perception technology in embodied intelligence and other applications, with business scale continuously expanding; Jingjin Electric, supporting new energy vehicles, focused on core patents and launched a series of new products with volume growth.

Overall, the development trend of companies in the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier is positive. According to the 2025 performance quick report, 39 companies in this tier are expected to see a 37% year-on-year increase in revenue, while net profits are expected to reduce losses significantly by 57%. This positive trend of “increasing revenue and reducing losses” strongly validates the commercialization prospects of core technologies and operational efficiency improvements. The market responded positively; currently, the total market value of these 39 companies reaches 2 trillion yuan, reflecting investors’ firm confidence in the long-term value of “hard tech.”

Our review shows that since the market opened, the Sci-Tech Innovation Board has supported 61 unprofitable companies at listing to access the capital market. Among them, 22 have successfully “graduated” from the “U” label, and after the 2025 annual report disclosures, the number of companies shedding the “U” is expected to reach 28, nearly half. On average, these 28 companies took about 2.2 years from listing to graduation. It is estimated that in 2025, these “graduates” will achieve operating revenue of 1.758 trillion yuan and a net profit of 9.487 billion yuan.

The Sci-Tech Innovation Board’s reform efforts continue to enhance the quality and efficiency of technological innovation.

The “graduation” of the first batch of companies from the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier vividly illustrates the synchronized progress of deepening reform in the capital market and the wave of technological innovation.

Over the past more than six years, the system supply of the Sci-Tech Innovation Board has continuously iterated, with expanding inclusive boundaries, enabling more precise and effective capital flow into the most needed areas of tech innovation. In June 2024, the board launched the “Eight Measures for the Sci-Tech Innovation Board,” comprising 35 reform initiatives, including standards for refinancing “light assets, high R&D investment,” and phased payment for mergers and acquisitions, among others. These reforms strongly support the development path of tech companies emphasizing “strong R&D and integration.”

In June 2025, Wu Qing, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, announced at the Lujiazui Forum that, leveraging the demonstration effect of the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, further reform policies (“1+6”) would be introduced. The “Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier” was thus established. As of now, these measures are being rapidly implemented, with seven new companies, including Moore Threads, listed; many companies meeting the fifth set of standards for the Sci-Tech Innovation Board have been accepted by professional institutions; and the release of the fifth set of listing standards for the board’s review guidelines for commercial rocket companies has been announced. Changxin Technology became the first project accepted under the pre-review mechanism for IPOs on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board.

The spillover effects of the system innovations on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board are also noteworthy. For example, the “Eight Measures” proposed optimizing the equity and debt financing system for listed companies, exploring the establishment of standards for “light assets, high R&D investment.” Since the standards’ release, 14 companies including Cambrian and Dizhe Medicine (688192.SH) have applied for refinancing under these standards, with a total proposed financing amount exceeding 35 billion yuan, promoting the launch of numerous chip and innovative drug R&D projects. Building on this, in February this year, the Shanghai Stock Exchange introduced a package of measures to optimize refinancing, emphasizing “supporting excellence and supporting tech,” aiming to better meet the needs of tech innovation companies for refinancing, and researching standards for “light assets, high R&D investment” on the main board.

Recently, at the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress’ economic-themed press conference, Wu Qing clearly stated that the beneficial experience of reforming the Sci-Tech Innovation Board would be replicated and promoted to the ChiNext Market, implementing reforms such as IPO pre-review for qualified innovative companies, especially those with breakthroughs in key core technologies, allowing eligible companies in review to increase capital and issue new shares, and optimizing new stock issuance pricing. As a “test field” for institutional reform, the Sci-Tech Innovation Board continues to play a leading role in the reform of the capital market.