CITIC Securities says weakening investment from property and traditional infrastructure contrasts with a long-term uplift in compute demand driven by massive AI workloads and rising capex by Chinese and US firms, leaving scope for higher domestic compute spending. China’s "six networks" rollout could unlock trillion-yuan compute investment, creating large-scale import-substitution opportunities for domestic chips, memory and optical communications. China’s power supply and lower green-power cost

2026-06-24

CITIC Securities says weakening investment from property and traditional infrastructure contrasts with a long-term uplift in compute demand driven by massive AI workloads and rising capex by Chinese and US firms, leaving scope for higher domestic compute spending. China’s "six networks" rollout could unlock trillion-yuan compute investment, creating large-scale import-substitution opportunities for domestic chips, memory and optical communications. China’s power supply and lower green-power costs, together with accelerated direct renewable connections and source–grid–load–storage integration, bolster a compute–power competitive edge. Data center build-outs will materially lift demand for copper, tin and other industrial metals; semiconductor tightness will transmit to upstream raw materials and downstream electronics; broader funding channels for data-center REITs are supporting capacity expansion. CITIC expects sustained price gains in industrial metals, semiconductors and end-user electronics and views compute- and power-related supply chains as medium- to long-term allocation opportunities.