GalaxyCore raises CNY 4.2 billion for high-end sensors as China's chip premium deflates
China's volume image-sensor maker is raising CNY 4.2 billion for a 100MP/200MP push up-market, from a profit base down 75%, just as the domestic-chip premium it is sold on starts to deflate.
Vincent Jiang · 2 min read
GalaxyCore (688728.SH) wants up to CNY 4.2 billion (US$627 million) in a private placement to expand 12-inch CMOS image sensor capacity and develop 100MP and 200MP sensors, a push from budget phone sensors into the high-resolution segment Sony leads 13.
The timing is the story. GalaxyCore is raising from a shrinking base: 2025 net profit fell 73% year on year, first-half 2026 profit fell 75% 3. The stock closed at CNY 14.39 on 24 September, down 3.68% year to date 3. Now the placement goes to market while the domestic-chip premium it is pitched on is deflating in public.
2 October selloff: real estate fell furthest, chips more than 2%
Data
| Change | |
|---|---|
| CSI 300 | -2.4% |
| Hang Seng (HK.cash) | -3% |
| CSI Semiconductor | -2% |
| CSI AI Index | -1.2% |
| CSI 300 Real Estate | -9% |
The premium is being repriced
On 2 October the CSI Semiconductor index fell more than 2%, heading for a quarterly loss of about 32% (a projection of the quarter's trajectory, not a realized loss), while the CSI 300 touched a one-year low and the CSI 300 Real Estate index fell as much as 9% 2. Cambricon, GigaDevice, Zhongji Innolight and Eoptolink each dropped at least 5% after reports that Beijing may allow domestic companies to buy Nvidia's latest chips, with proposed US restrictions on Chinese optical firms adding pressure 2.
That is the contradiction. Chinese chipmakers are priced partly on forced substitution, the assumption that exclusions keep the domestic market to themselves. If Beijing reopens the Nvidia tap, that premium reprices, and GalaxyCore's raise asks new investors to underwrite it anyway: dilution at a discount, funding a megapixel race against Sony just as the exclusion the bet implicitly rests on weakens.
Dilution at a discount, on undisclosed terms
The trade is specific. Placement buyers put up to CNY 4.2 billion of fresh cash into a company whose profit is falling 75%, taking the risk that the substitution premium survives; existing holders selling into the raise benefit before the discount prices, and the terms, discount size and subscription structure, have not been disclosed in the briefs so far 3. Don't underwrite 688728 while the raise prices. Wait for the terms to surface, and for whether the substitution premium survives Nvidia's return.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
