Token Craze Triggers Optical Fiber Super Cycle
YOFC Builds Solid "Digital Oil" Pipelines for the AI Era with Strong Capabilities.

“Previously, optical fiber cables were installed in thousands of households, but now they are installed next to every GPU card. ”Industry experts interpret the underlying logic behind the current surge in optical fiber demand - the focus of communication network construction is shifting from traditional 5G and fiber to the home to high-speed optical interconnection within intelligent computing centers.

In the first quarter of this year, YOFC delivered a highly anticipated performance report: single quarter revenue of 3.695 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.7%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 495 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 226.4%. The gross profit margin reached 41.51% and the net profit margin was 15.84%, both of which reached their highest levels since going public. The core driving force behind the significant increase in profits is the comprehensive acceleration of demand in the optical fiber cable industry driven by the explosive growth of the AI industry.

In this wave of industry driven by AI computing power, as a pioneer in China's optical communication field, YOFC is completing the transition from the "bit" era to the "token" era with 38 years of technological accumulation, and attempting to write new narratives in the global high-end manufacturing landscape.

The "Fiber Super Cycle" Boosted by Token Craze

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the underlying logic of the global communication industry at an unprecedented speed. Zhang Lei, Deputy Director of the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing and Application Technology for Optical Fiber Cables, pointed out at a recent industry seminar that Token, as the "digital oil" of the AI era, highly relies on the three major upgrades of the intelligent computing center's optical network for efficient production: ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and ultra-low loss.

As the training scale of generative artificial intelligence models approaches the trillion parameter level, the data traffic within data centers is growing exponentially. Statistics show that the global demand for optical fiber cables in data centers will increase significantly by 75.9% year-on-year in 2025, reaching 69.6 million core kilometers, and is expected to exceed 100 million core kilometers by 2026. The optical fiber demand for a single ultra large scale intelligent computing center is expected to be several times that of traditional data centers.

At the same time as the surge in demand, the supply side is facing rigid constraints. The core profit of the optical fiber industry chain is concentrated in the optical fiber preform link with the highest technological barrier, and the expansion cycle of the preform production line is as long as 1.5 to 2 years, far behind the current situation of AI demand explosion, and the investment scale is huge. In addition, the temporary tight balance of energy costs and overseas production capacity exacerbates the mismatch between regional supply and demand, leading to a sustained rise in global product prices, significant regional premium differentiation, and supply-demand imbalance becoming the norm.

From the policy perspective, the support is also constantly increasing. The 2026 government work report proposes the implementation of new infrastructure projects such as ultra large scale intelligent computing clusters and computer collaboration. The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced that the development of China's computing power industry has shown a good trend, with over 70 computing power channels built around computing power hubs in the past two years. The orderly promotion of 5G networks, 10 gigabit optical networks, the "East Data West Computing" project, and the urban millisecond computing special action has formed a huge and sustained market demand for the optical fiber cable industry through the joint efforts of multiple policies.

Technical Barriers

Control the "Three Processes" and Build a Solid "Moat" for the Entire Industry Chain

The core competitiveness of the optical communication industry lies in the fiber preform, known as the "chip" of the optical communication industry, which accounts for about 70% of the profits in the industry chain. Its technological level directly determines the quality, production capacity, and cost of optical fibers. The core technological barrier of YOFC lies in its independent mastery of the three mainstream fiber preform preparation technologies of PCVD, OVD, and VAD and their industrialization, which has built a "moat" in the industry.

The three major processes each have technical advantages: PCVD process has inherent advantages in precision control and raw material utilization of fiber preform rods, and is suitable for producing fiber preform rod cores with complex cross-sectional structures and higher technical requirements; The OVD process has an ultra-high deposition rate, but doping control is relatively complex, and it is often used in production to deposit undoped fiber preform cladding or high-purity quartz materials; The VAD process has advantages in producing single-mode fiber preform core rods with simple cross-sectional structures due to its high deposition rate and flexible doping control. YOFC has achieved 100% autonomous control of key raw materials and core equipment through the collaborative layout of three major processes.

R&D strength is the core support of technological barriers. YOFC relies on its national key laboratory for advanced manufacturing and application technology of optical fiber cables to build a top-level R&D platform in the industry, and has accumulated more than 2600 domestic and foreign patents. The number of invention patents in the field of rod fiber cables ranks first in the country. Continuous high-intensity R&D investment (investing over 5% of revenue annually in R&D without any upper limit), keeping YOFC at the forefront of technology and providing solid support for the development of new optical fibers in the AI era.

Global Layout

The “Digital Lifeline” for the AI Era

While accelerating the global expansion of products and production capacity, YOFC is becoming an irreplaceable China's strength in the global optical communication industry chain.

In 2025, YOFC's overseas business revenue reached 6.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.8%, accounting for 42.7% of the total revenue. At present, YOFC has established nine major production bases in seven overseas countries, serving over 100 countries and regions. Facing the window period where the capacity expansion of major overseas fiber optic suppliers lags behind the capital expenditure demand of AI data centers, YOFC's nine overseas production bases are playing a crucial role in global collaborative delivery.

From the perspective of industry chain position, Chinese manufacturers dominate the global optical fiber cable market, and global fiber preform and optical fiber production capacity are mainly concentrated in China. From the perspective of industry demand, the overall scale of the industry is expected to grow by over 20% year-on-year in 2026. With the explosive growth of AI data centers, DCI interconnection, and high-speed optical modules, the demand for high-end, low-loss, high-density, and high-fiber-count optical cables is growing exponentially.

Faced with this historic opportunity, YOFC has proposed the "AI-2030" strategy, which comprehensively covers three major application scenarios: internal interconnection of AI servers, cluster interconnection, and long-distance transmission between data centers, promoting the comprehensive leap of optical fiber products towards next-generation products such as AI high-speed interconnection optical fiber with ultra-low loss and ultra-high speed as key technical features.

One of the most representative ones is YOFC's first introduction of anti-resonant hollow fiber in the industry. Traditional optical fibers are solid core, with light running through glass. The YOFC's hollow fiber bundles the light beam in an air channel and transmits it at a speed close to the speed of vacuum light, creating an almost ideal "super channel" for long-distance interconnection of AI intelligent computing clusters. At present, YOFC has successfully deployed 13 commercial and pilot projects worldwide, achieving attenuation as low as 0.04dB/km and a single hollow fiber preform drawing length exceeding 91.2km, seizing the commanding heights of next-generation optical fiber technology at a global leading level.

Industry Insights

Under the Trend of Token Craze, Technological Independence Is the Core Competitiveness

Since 2026, the optical fiber cable industry has received much attention, essentially recognizing the reevaluation of the core value of the optical communication industry driven by AI computing power. The Token craze has driven an explosion in demand for computing power, and as the "digital blood vessel" of computing power, the strategic position of optical networks has been upgraded from traditional communication infrastructure to a core strategic resource in the AI era.

The more than 30 years of development history of YOFC deeply confirms that in technology intensive industries, independent innovation is the core confidence to overcome cycles and seize opportunities. From a joint venture factory that imported every screw in 1988 to today's chain owner enterprise that controls the core lifeline of the global optical communication industry, the story of YOFC is not only a business model for a Chinese company to cross cycles, but also a vivid footnote to China's high-end manufacturing building a strategic foundation in the global AI competition. From breaking the overseas technology blockade to mastering globally leading core technologies, from a single optical fiber production enterprise to a global leader with independent control over the entire industry chain, from serving the domestic market to global technology output, every step taken by YOFC cannot be separated from continuous cultivation and independent control of core technologies.

Currently, the global optical communication industry is in a golden period of development driven by the demand for AI computing power, while also facing challenges such as intensified technological competition and supply chain competition. As an industry leader, YOFC has the core capability of self-sufficiency in the entire industry chain and full technological coverage, and continues to promote the orderly release of compliant production capacity, making China's optical fiber cable supply an important ballast for global supply and demand balance. YOFC's development experience shows that only by adhering to technological independence, deepening core areas, and forward-looking layout for the future, can we take the initiative in global industrial competition

Reprinted from: People's Post and Telecommunications  Author: Xin Fei