China’s chipmakers pour revenue into R&D, outpacing US ratios

China’s chip champions channelled a larger proportion of revenue into research and development (R&D) than their US peers, first-quarter earnings show, as Beijing presses ahead with its tech self-reliance drive amid an artificial intelligence boom. Beijing-based Moore Threads spent half of its revenue on R&D in the quarter ended March 2026, while Shanghai-based MetaX spent 45 per cent over the same period, according to exchange filings. By contrast, US chipmakers such as AMD and Intel have typically spent between 20 and 30 per cent of their revenue on R&D in recent years. Nvidia’s R&D ratio fell sharply to 8.6 per cent in 2025 from 27.2 per cent in 2022, according to exchange filings, as revenue surged to US$215.9 billion for the year ended January 25, 2026, fuelled by surging demand for advanced AI chips. Despite higher ratios, Chinese chip designers continue to lag behind US giants on absolute R&D spending. Nvidia spent US$18.5 billion for the year ended January 25, 2026, according to exchange filings, while AMD spent US$8 billion and Intel spent US$13.8 billion for the year ended December 27, 2025. In comparison, MetaX spent 1 billion yuan (US$146 million), while Moore Threads spent 1.3 billion yuan in 2025, according to exchange filings. R&D spending by Chinese chipmakers has continued to grow, underscoring efforts to narrow the gap with US rivals. Moore Threads’ R&D expenses rose 50 per cent year on year to 369 million yuan in the first quarter of 2026, while MetaX’s surged 16.3 per cent to 253 million yuan over the same period. Chinese R&D ratios are also expected to converge with those of US peers as revenue grows, a trend already visible among more established domestic chip designers. Beijing-based Cambricon, founded four years earlier than MetaX and Moore Threads, spent 11.2 per cent of its revenue on R&D in the quarter ended March 2026, down from 24.5 per cent over the same period last year, according to exchange filings. The declining ratio came alongside robust top-line growth. Cambricon posted strong first-quarter results in 2026, with revenue surging 160 per cent to 2.9 billion yuan and profits jumping 185 per cent to 1 billion yuan, building on its first full-year profit in 2025 since its 2020 listing. The company attributed the growth to a “sustained surge in the AI industry’s computing power demand”. MetaX, established by former AMD employees in 2020, debuted on Shanghai’s Star Market in December 2025, less than two weeks after Moore Threads, which was founded the same year by Nvidia’s former China manager Zhang Jianzhong.