The Hurun Research Institute on January 19 released the 2025 China Top 50 Artificial Intelligence Enterprises list, highlighting a massive surge in the value of China's domestic AI ecosystem.

The hardware sector emerged as the clear winner for the year. Cambricon claimed the top spot with a valuation of 630 billion yuan (90 billion U.S. dollars), marking a staggering 165% year-on-year increase.

Following Cambricon are:

Moore Threads: Ranked 2nd (310 billion yuan), known as China’s leading domestic GPU firm.

MetaX: Ranked 3rd (250 billion yuan), specializing in high-end, fully localized GPU solutions.

Notably, AI chip-related firms secured 7 out of the top 10 positions, including industry heavyweights such as Horizon Robotics, Rockchip Electronics, Shanghai Biren Technology, and VeriSilicon Microelectronics.

The report also underscores the youth of the industry, with an average company age of just 12 years. The "Class of 2021"—companies founded only within the last four years—already boasts 6 entries: Moonshot AI, Baichuan AI, StepFun AI, MiniMax, XVERSE, and Zelos Tech. The first four are primarily focused on Large Language Models (LLMs), signaling a rapid commercialization of generative AI.