In January 2026, a voluntary announcement released by Qidian Guofeng (01280.HK) cast a “signal flare” containing far-reaching strategic intent into a calm market.

The announcement shows that its subsidiary, Shanghai Huiliu, signed a one-year “Non-exclusive Leading Channel Distributor Cooperation Agreement” with MetaX (stock code: 688802.SH), a leading domestic high-end GPU enterprise. This agreement is essentially a declaration of strategic alliance, marking that Qidian Guofeng anchors its development core in the domestic AI computing power revolution.

This indicates that Qidian Guofeng, with unprecedented determination, is completing a key transformation from diversified exploration to focused breakthrough, strongly entering the “integrated software and hardware” computing power solution track, intending to reshape its own value and industry position in the tide of domestic substitution.

1 Inevitability of the Era: Strategic Positioning under the Wave of Domestic Computing Power

Qidian Guofeng’s strategic shift this time is a response to the historical window opened by the resonance of three major logics: the macro environment, industrial policies, and technological evolution, which it has deeply understood and followed.

First, the external constraints on China's chip sector are tightening. The United States has continuously intensified and dynamically adjusted export controls on advanced computing chips to China, significantly increasing the supply chain stability, predictability, and long-term compliance risks for domestic enterprises in obtaining high-end imported GPUs.

This “chokehold” reality forces downstream application parties—whether it be internet giants pursuing business continuity, or institutions undertaking scientific research and national data security missions—to seriously consider and substantively introduce domestic alternative solutions. Domestic GPUs are no longer merely technical backups or policy-driven tasks, but strategic procurement options related to the continuity of core business. This fundamental shift on the demand side provides unprecedented market opportunities for all participants in the domestic computing power industry chain.

Second, China’s national strategy of promoting technological self-reliance is being transformed into concrete, powerful, and increasingly refined industrial policies. From direct subsidies for the procurement of domestic chips, to explicit localization ratio requirements in the construction of intelligent computing centers by local governments, to the establishment of localization thresholds in the bidding for critical information infrastructure in certain industries, a combined approach of “demand-driven + policy-supported” is taking shape. These policies not only create an initial market, but also accelerate the iterative maturity of domestic chips through large-scale application, reducing downstream migration costs and risks. Qidian Guofeng’s entry at this time coincides with a golden period when policy support is strongest, market education has been initially completed, and the competitive landscape has not yet been fully solidified.

From the perspective of the enterprise itself, domestic GPU companies represented by MetaX have already achieved rapid catch-up in hardware performance indicators. As a core backbone force in the domestic GPU substitution process, MetaX firmly ranks among the leaders of the “Four Little Dragons of domestic GPUs” and is an important force in addressing the “chokehold” problem. After listing on the STAR Market in December 2025, its market value once exceeded RMB 332 billion on the first day, making it a core domestic GPU enterprise at the multi-billion-yuan levelhighly recognized by the capital market. Leveraging a core team originating from AMD with more than 20 years of experience in high-end GPU R&D and mass production, it has built full-stack technological capabilities of “hardware + software”: On the hardware side, its self-developed XCORE architecture and MetaXLink high-speed interconnection technology have performance comparable to top international products such as NVIDIA H200, supporting large-scale commercial deployment of multi-thousand-GPU clusters and laying a solid hardware foundation for ecosystem implementation. On the software side, its self-developed MXMACA software stack specifically addresses core compatibility pain points in the domestic GPU industry, achieving native compatibility with CUDA and mainstream frameworks, enabling near zero-cost migration of AI applications. After the MXMACA software stack was open-sourced in February 2025, the number of users quickly exceeded 150,000, with ecosystem penetration speed ranking at the mid-to-upper level among domestic vendors. In terms of commercialization, MetaX is relatively leading among the “Four Little Dragons of domestic GPUs.” In 2024, its revenue reached RMB 743 million, and its core product Xiyun C500 has accumulated sales of over 25,000 units, with bulk procurement from leading enterprises such as China Telecom, Alibaba, and Tencent. As of September 2025, its order backlog exceeded RMB 1.43 billion, covering six vertical industries. Through practical cases, it has verified the feasibility of its ecosystem solutions, becoming a core benchmark for domestic GPUs transitioning from “R&D” to “large-scale application.” Qidian Guofeng’s choice to cooperate with MetaX is precisely based on its relatively complete layout and leading advantages at the “hardware + foundational software” level.

For Qidian Guofeng, its role is to stand on the shoulders of giants and focus on the next level of “engineering and scenario implementation”: packaging GPUs and software stacks into stable, reliable, and easy-to-deploy server or cluster solutions, and directly facing end customers to solve the “last mile” issues of delivery, debugging, and operation and maintenance. This division of labor allows Qidian Guofeng to avoid the most cutting-edge and capital-intensive chip R&D segment, instead positioning itself at the key link of transforming technological supply into market value, with relatively controllable risks and a clear business path. Under this background, Qidian Guofeng’s transformation is not only a response to external opportunities, but also an inevitable choice of internal strategic focus.

2 Focus on Core, Break Through and Rebirth

To understand this transformation, it must be examined within the context of Qidian Guofeng’s own development trajectory. This is not a blind following of trends, but rather an active and focused strategic breakthrough after a period of exploration and accumulation.

In 2024, the Company reported losses due to a significant goodwill impairment. Although this event exerted pressure on the share price in the short term, from another perspective, it also represented a one-time clearing of certain past investment layouts, allowing the Company to shed historical burdens and move forward with a lighter footing. At the same time, it prompted both management and the capital market to focus more on where the Company’s true core growth drivers lie in the future. This focus on AI computing power can be seen as a clear answer to that question, representing a strategic “convergence” and “focus,” which is conducive to aligning internal resources and external expectations.

It is worth noting that, beyond its traditional businesses, Qidian Guofeng has actively explored new consumption sectors such as liquor sales and education services, and has achieved significant revenue growth. The value of this experience lies in: (1) validating the Company’s market expansion and operational capabilities, proving that its team is not confined to a single area but possesses the ability to explore new businesses and adapt to new markets; (2) accumulating experience in rapid learning and cross-sector integration, with such organizational flexibility being crucial for entering a completely new computing hardware track. The transition from broad and diversified “trial and error” to focused “deep development” in high-tech hardware reflects the Company’s strategic evolution from seeking opportunities to anchoring major trends.

Compared with the consumer sector, domestic AI computing power represents a high-certainty growth track backed by national strategy, characterized by rigid demand and vast market space. For a listed company like Qidian Guofeng seeking value re-rating, successfully entering this track means that its valuation logic may undergo a fundamental shift—from a traditional retail or consumer service valuation system (PE) to a more imaginative technology integration and solution-based valuation framework (potentially incorporating PS multiples, growth premiums, and localization theme premiums). This cooperation agreement with MetaX serves as the key catalyst triggering this valuation shift.

3 Core Advantages: Deep Moat and Unique Strategic Development Plan

In the blue ocean of domestic computing power full of opportunities, Qidian Guofeng has already built multiple competitive advantages through its forward-looking layout and unique endowments, paving the way for its success. As the “leading channel” of MetaX, the Company has secured a first-mover advantage in market visibility and customer resources. The deep binding with core partners ensures stable access to and close coordination with the highest-quality domestic computing power supply, which is a strategic positioning difficult for latecomers to replicate in the short term.

Qidian Guofeng’s status as a listed company means stronger brand credibility, more convenient financing channels, and more standardized governance structure. This gives it natural advantages in undertaking large-scale government and enterprise projects, making necessary capital investments to enhance delivery capabilities, and attracting high-end talent.

Having been tempered in multiple markets, the Company possesses keen market insight, flexible decision-making mechanisms, and strong ground execution capabilities. This market-oriented gene of being “able to fight and win tough battles” is precisely the key to bringing technological products to a broad customer base and achieving commercial success. Compared with traditional hardware manufacturers or start-ups, Qidian Guofeng has stronger advantages in being close to customers and responding quickly.

Looking ahead, Qidian Guofeng’s computing power strategy is not an unrealistic vision, but a solid and progressively advancing system with interlinked steps, aiming to gradually build a deep and sustainable competitive advantage.

First, as the initial step, within the next one to two years, the Company will rapidly integrate resources and focus on achieving the first batch of large-scale deliveries and the implementation of benchmark projects. Leveraging the “leading channel” project protection mechanism and annual procurement commitments, the team will make every effort to target key customers such as leading internet companies, national and regional intelligent computing centers, and major research institutions, completing the full process from solution validation to batch delivery, quickly establishing the “Huiliu” brand as a reliable player in domestic computing power solutions and achieving a strong business start.

Second, over the next three to five years, the Company will, on the basis of hardware delivery, focus on deepening its capabilities in integrated software and hardware. By establishing a professional technical service team and closely collaborating with partners such as MetaX, it will develop value-added services including optimization and adaptation for mainstream AI frameworks, model migration, performance tuning, and system operation and maintenance.At the same time, it will further penetrate key industries such as finance, biomedicine, and autonomous driving, creating industry-specific solutions, upgrading customer relationships from one-time procurement to long-term trusted service partnerships, and significantly enhancing customer stickiness and business profit margins. Furthermore, in the coming year, according to the agreement signed this time, Qidian Guofeng will procure 2,000 GPU products from MetaX, and for Qidian Guofeng, revenues are expected to increase substantially.

Finally, in the long term, Qidian Guofeng adheres to long-termism and is committed to becoming an important integrator and promoter of the domestic diversified computing power ecosystem. While deepening cooperation with MetaX, the Company will explore the integration of more advanced domestic computing units to build a heterogeneous computing platform that features integration and unified management.. By establishing an open partner ecosystem and working together with outstanding upstream and downstream enterprises, the Company aims to jointly define full-stack domestic solution standards for future scenarios, evolving from a successful market participant into one of the key definers of the industry ecosystem, and achieving a leap in value contribution.

4 Conclusion

The partnership between Qidian Guofeng and MetaX represents a perfect convergence of strategic foresight and industrial opportunity. This is not only a key turning point in the Company’s development history, but also a wise choice for it to actively integrate into the grand narrative of national technological self-reliance and share the core growth dividends of the digital era.

Through this agreement, Qidian Guofeng has clearly demonstrated to the market its firm determination for transformation, a clear strategic path, and a solid initial layout. The Company is transforming from a diversified explorer into a “solution definer” and “ecosystem value integrator” focused on domestic AI computing power as its strategic core.

Under the combined favorable factors of supportive policies, market demand, technological maturity, and its own preparedness, Qidian Guofeng’s strategic upgrade comes at the right time. We have every reason to expect that, with its clear blueprint, firm execution, and unique competitive advantages, Qidian Guofeng will ride the wave of the domestic computing power boom, set sail toward deeper horizons, embark on a remarkable new journey of value growth, and create more outstanding returns for shareholders and society.