Northbound Net Inflow Reaches HK$7.167B; Zhipu Attracts HK$1.141B Single-Day Buying
N.R. Finch
Northbound capital posted HK$7.167 billion in net buying on July 21, heavily concentrated in AI compute and semiconductors — Hua Hong, SMIC, and Zhipu took the top three spots, signaling that southbound money is placing a focused bet on the domestic compute supply-chain thesis.
Where did the money go? Top three all locked on semis and AI compute
Hua Hong Semiconductor (01347) drew HK$2.25 billion net and SMIC (00981) drew HK$1.926 billion, taking the top two spots. This means → northbound capital put its biggest chips on wafer foundries — the factories that turn chip designs into physical silicon.
Zhipu (02513) drew HK$1.141 billion, ranking third. Two pieces of news landed the same day: Zhipu completed its acquisition of XCore Sigma to fill a gap in compute software, and announced a 1 GW-class domestic AI compute data center built entirely on Chinese-made chips.
In plain terms = Zhipu plugged both "how to unlock compute" and "where compute comes from" in a single day — the capital follow-through makes sense.
TSMC is raising prices — what does that have to do with mainland foundries?
Multiple sources report that TSMC plans to raise prices on both advanced and mature process nodes by up to 10% in 2027, citing rising costs for materials, equipment, and overseas fabs. Negotiations with major clients on new pricing have already begun.
This means → a TSMC price hike pushes price-sensitive orders toward mainland foundries. Hua Hong and SMIC are the natural recipients.
This reflects why northbound capital piled into those two names — it is not just a current-earnings call but a pre-positioning for order migration driven by TSMC repricing.
YOFC — what does "10-to-20× demand growth" for PM fiber mean?
YOFC (06869) drew HK$1.044 billion net. President Zhuang Dan said the market for polarization-maintaining fiber — a specialty fiber that keeps a light signal's polarization direction stable, used mainly in quantum communications and high-precision sensing — is "extremely hot," with demand expected to grow 10 to 20 times over the next one to two years.
YOFC's first-half net profit is guided at roughly RMB 2.4–3.0 billion, a year-on-year jump of 711%–914%. In plain terms = profits up 8-to-10×, matching the shift of PM fiber from a niche product to mass-scale production.
The company is working with supply-chain partners to expand capacity, indicating production is still a bottleneck.
Kingboard group — staking out the upstream of AI copper-clad laminates
Kingboard Laminates (01888) drew HK$929 million net; Kingboard Holdings (00148) drew HK$427 million.
On July 16, Kingboard Holdings broke ground on a new electronic cloth and high-performance materials project in Guangzhou Nansha, focused on core raw materials for AI-grade copper-clad laminates — the base substrate inside PCBs, used heavily in compute servers. At full capacity the project targets RMB 2 billion in added annual output.
This means → Kingboard is locking in the furthest-upstream material link in AI compute hardware. More servers equal more laminates — capital is moving up the supply chain looking for certainty.
GigaDevice and Xiaomi — blockbuster numbers, but read the fine print
GigaDevice (03986) drew HK$416 million net. First-half revenue is guided at roughly RMB 11.5 billion, up about 177% year-on-year; net profit at roughly RMB 6.9 billion, up about 1,099%. Yet eight asset-management plans under China Life sold approximately 1.1092 million shares on July 8, cashing out over RMB 682 million.
In plain terms = earnings are exploding, but large institutional money is already taking profits — bullish and bearish signals are running side by side.
Xiaomi (01810) drew HK$126 million net. Reports say the full-year smartphone shipment target has been raised from roughly 90 million units to 110 million, a ~16% bump. IDC China research manager Guo Tianxiang noted, however, that Xiaomi's internal target never fell below 100 million — the latest range is 100–110 million.
Internet giants are being sold — a divergence signal
Tencent (00700) saw HK$1.025 billion in net selling; Montage Technology (06809) saw HK$57.58 million net sold; Alibaba (09988) attracted only a marginal HK$14.31 million net buy.
This reflects a clear core logic for the day's northbound flows: "AI compute supply-chain fill," not broad tech allocation — money flowed out of internet leaders and into semiconductors and compute hardware.
This means → if this divergence persists, southbound capital is no longer equating "buy HK tech" with "buy Tencent and Alibaba," but running a finer screen within the supply chain.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.