Author | Cui Yuanwei Editor | Chen Junda
According to a report by Chip Insights on September 11, today, Jinzi Ham, an A-share listed company, announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fujian Jinzi Semiconductor Co., Ltd., has completed the second round of capital increase in Zhongsheng Microelectronics Co., Ltd., a Hangzhou-based optical communication chip company, subscribing to CNY 400,150 of Zhongsheng Micro's newly added registered capital with CNY 174 million. Jinzi Ham is the first listed company in China's ham industry, known as the "first listed ham stock." Including the CNY 100 million invested in the first round in October 2025, its subsidiary Jinzi Semiconductor has cumulatively invested approximately CNY 274 million across the two rounds, holding a total of 19.0002% equity in Zhongsheng Micro. Based on the pre-money valuation of CNY 1.4223 billion for this round, the post-money valuation of Zhongsheng Micro is approximately CNY 1.596 billion.
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, Zhongsheng Microelectronics focuses on the R&D and design of high-speed optical communication, wireless access chips, and clock driver chips. Its portfolio covers high-speed chips such as TIA (Transimpedance Amplifier), DRIVER (Driver IC), CDR (Clock and Data Recovery IC), and PLL. The products are applied in 5G/5.5G access networks, telecom metropolitan area networks, and backbone networks, as well as various high-end dedicated system equipment in data centers and supercomputing centers for cloud computing, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and ML (Machine Learning). The company's founder and major shareholder, Li Rangzhong, was once a core R&D personnel for Intel's optical communication chip design. With over 20 years of R&D experience in electrical chips for high-speed optical modules, he has researched high-speed communication chips such as TIA, Driver, and CDR. The core business focuses on the R&D and design of core electrical chips for 400G/800G/1.6T and above high-speed optical modules. According to Qichacha, an enterprise information inquiry platform, Zhongsheng Microelectronics has completed a series of Series A+ capital increases in multiple tranches. The investing institutions include Huarui Investment, Xinhe Capital, Jinzi Ham, and Yuanhe Holdings, with existing shareholder Saizhi Bole making a follow-on investment.
In terms of product matrix, Zhongsheng Microelectronics' high-speed electrical chips can be divided into four major modules by function: laser and modulator drivers, transimpedance amplifiers, EML/silicon photonics control chips, and crystal oscillators. By application scenarios, these chips are further divided into three product lines: data communications (PAM4), Coherent, and other supporting chips. Zhongsheng Micro has completed tape-outs for over 30 high-speed optical communication electrical chips, with products covering the full series from 10G to 800G. The datacom PAM4 product line mainly targets short-to-medium reach interconnects in data centers, including single-lane 50G VCSEL Drivers and TIAs, which can be used in 400G SR8 and 200G SR4 optical modules; as well as single-lane 100G VCSEL Driver/TIA, single-lane 100G silicon photonics LPO Driver, and various single-mode and LPO application TIAs, which can be used in 400G SR4/DR4/FR4 and 800G SR8/DR8/FR8 optical modules. The announcement stated that Zhongsheng Micro has achieved mass production and shipment of single-lane 100G TIA/Driver. Related products have passed technical tests by multiple leading domestic customers and entered the stage of mass production introduction. The Coherent product line targets long-haul transmission in telecom backbone networks, providing 32G baud and 64G baud silicon photonics Drivers and TIAs for 100G to 600G Longhaul, Metro, and ZR+ scenarios, available in both Wire-bonding and Flip-chip packaging versions. Other product lines include high-performance crystal oscillators and iDAC/vDAC for use with oDSP, as well as ACC ReDrivers for active copper cable interconnects.
Conclusion: Domestic Substitution of Electrical Chips for Optical Modules Capital Bets and Profitability Tests Go Hand in Hand
High-speed electrical chips such as TIA and Driver are core components of optical modules, directly determining the transmission rate and power consumption of optical modules. Given the rapid growth in demand for 800G and even 1.6T optical modules from AI computing clusters, the domestic substitution of electrical chips with single-lane rates of 100G/200G and above is becoming a critical link in the breakthrough of China's optical communication industry chain. In this round, Zhongsheng Micro received an exclusive follow-on investment from the wholly-owned subsidiary of an A-share listed company, with a post-money valuation of nearly CNY 1.6 billion, reflecting that industrial capital is still increasing its bets on the high-speed optical module electrical chip track. However, at a stage when the company has not yet achieved profitability and its revenue scale remains small, whether this valuation can be realized still depends on the pace of customer introduction and mass production volume ramp-up of its 1.6T products.
On September 20-21, the 2026 Global AI Chip Summit, co-organized by Chip Insights, will be held in Shanghai. The event will feature an opening ceremony, three summit forums on Large Model AI Chips, Agent Inference Chips, and Embodied AI Chips, as well as five technical seminars on Token Factory Heterogeneous Mixed Training and Inference, Super Nodes, AI Chip Architecture Innovation, New Memory, and Large Model KV Cache.