Optical module leader Zhongji Innolight (300308.SZ, 03008.HK) completed a share buyback of nearly 5 billion yuan at a pace far exceeding market expectations, wrapping up the entire program in just 17 trading days from launch to completion. Meanwhile, LONGi Green Energy achieved another breakthrough at the frontier of photovoltaic technology, with its self-developed crystalline silicon cell setting a world record for the third time this year, with conversion efficiency approaching more than 96% of the theoretical limit. The two announcements landed on the same day, reflecting the divergent paths of breakthrough that the AI computing power and photovoltaic industries are taking amid deep divergence.
On the evening of September 24, Zhongji Innolight disclosed its share buyback results: between September 1 and 23, over 17 trading days, the company repurchased a cumulative 5.6531 million shares through centralized bidding, representing 0.48% of total share capital, at a total cost of 4.997 billion yuan (approximately $745.4 million) excluding transaction fees, hitting the lower bound of its 4 billion to 8 billion yuan buyback plan and marking the program’s completion.
The pace of execution was notably faster than market expectations. On August 31, the company’s board had just unveiled the plan, proposing to repurchase A-shares using its own and self-raised funds, with a price ceiling as high as 1,200 yuan per share and a maximum term of 12 months. The repurchased shares were earmarked for equity incentive plans or employee stock ownership plans, and would be cancelled in accordance with regulations if unused within 36 months. At the time, Zhongji Innolight’s share price was undergoing a pullback of more than 26% since July, and the market was generally taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the speed at which this “price support plus incentives” combination would be implemented.
In actual execution, the buyback transaction range was 806.93 yuan to 944.68 yuan, with an average price of approximately 884 yuan—well below the 1,200 yuan price ceiling. During the buyback period, the company’s directors, supervisors, senior management, controlling shareholder, and persons acting in concert with the actual controller made zero purchases or sales, and shares in the account carried no voting rights and could not be pledged or lent out.
It is worth noting that Zhongji Innolight’s last share buyback dates back to 2022, with an amount of just 301 million yuan (approximately $44.9 million). After a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, the company restarted buybacks at a scale more than 10 times larger, backed by explosive earnings growth. In the first half of 2026, Zhongji Innolight achieved total operating revenue of 41.8 billion yuan (approximately $6.2 billion), up 182% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of 13.65 billion yuan (approximately $2.0 billion), up 242%; non-GAAP net profit of 13.09 billion yuan (approximately $2.0 billion), up 229%; basic earnings per share of 12.31 yuan; and a weighted average return on equity of 37.6%. Demand for high-end optical modules such as 800G and 1.6T continued to surge, with major customers competing to raise capital expenditure guidance and orders already released for 2027. The certainty of earnings formed the foundation for the company’s confidence in conducting buybacks at elevated price levels.
Additionally, Zhongji Innolight completed its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of July this year, raising more than HK$50 billion (approximately $6.4 billion), leaving the company with ample cash on hand to decisively deploy 5 billion yuan to stabilize the market during a period of share price weakness. As of the September 24 close, Zhongji Innolight traded at 895.86 yuan, down 2.9%, with a total market capitalization of approximately 1.06 trillion yuan and a trailing P/E ratio of about 51.6 times. Single-day turnover reached 16.9 billion yuan (approximately $2.5 billion), with cumulative annual trading volume reaching 4.83 trillion yuan, with trading activity frequently ranking first among A-shares.
The semi-annual report also revealed that well-known individual investor Zhang Jianping newly entered as the company’s ninth-largest tradable shareholder, with a holding valued at 7.537 billion yuan (approximately $1.1 billion) based on the June 30 closing price.
The subsequent use of the repurchased shares remains a key focus for the market. The company has made clear that all repurchased shares will be used for equity incentive plans or employee stock ownership plans. However, some investors have called on community forums for the company to follow the example of CATL and directly cancel the repurchased shares to boost earnings per share. Whether this nearly 5 billion yuan equity incentive can truly lock in core talent ultimately depends on whether the ramp-up of 1.6T products materializes as scheduled.
The same evening, news of a technological breakthrough also emerged from the photovoltaic sector. LONGi Green Energy announced that on September 24 local time, the company unveiled its self-developed high-low temperature composite passivated back-contact (HIBC) cell in Europe, with photoelectric conversion efficiency certified at 28.29% by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH). This marks LONGi Green Energy’s third world record for crystalline silicon cell efficiency this year, following previous records of 28.04% and 28.13%. The latest achievement reaches 96.2% of the theoretical limit, approaching the technological ceiling. Modules built on HIBC cell technology with power output exceeding 700W were unveiled simultaneously, signaling that this cutting-edge technology has successfully transitioned to mass production.
LONGi Green Energy’s breakthrough is not an isolated case. Against the backdrop of deep adjustment in the PV industry, leading players are intensively releasing technological achievements to capture the high-end market. In June this year, Trina Solar announced that its self-developed industrial-standard 3.1-square-meter perovskite/crystalline silicon tandem module achieved a full-area module efficiency of 29.2%, setting a new world record for tandem module power output. Tongwei Co. recently stated that the company continues to make breakthroughs in R&D conversion efficiency at industry-leading levels, leveraging the industry’s first 5MW-class fully automated perovskite/heterojunction tandem pilot line.
The industry as a whole remains in the throes of supply-demand rebalancing. On the demand side, global PV installation growth has slowed markedly. According to a report released by SolarPower Europe, global PV installations added 664GW in 2025, while 2026 is projected to decline to 612GW (central scenario), a decrease of nearly 8%—the first contraction in more than two decades. On the supply side, under the guidance of “anti-involution” policies, low-end capacity is being cleared at an accelerated pace.
Minmetals Securities research argues that against a backdrop of subdued demand, the natural clearing of industry supply and the push from “anti-involution” policies have led to premiums for high-quality capacity emerging both domestically and internationally. The clearing events involving leading capacity are worth watching, as they could drive an improvement in industry supply-demand conditions, with valuations and earnings of related companies set to recover.
From the perspective of sector earnings performance, divergence is equally pronounced. Among 73 listed companies in China’s A-share photovoltaic equipment sector, only 9 posted year-on-year growth in net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half amid overall industry pressure, concentrated mainly in the PV auxiliary materials sub-segment. Tongxiang Technology, Levima Advanced Materials, and Betely saw first-half net profit attributable to shareholders grow by more than 100% year-on-year. Among them, Tongxiang Technology achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of 48 million yuan (approximately $7.2 million), up 568.86% year-on-year. The company said that copper prices continued to rise in the first half, and it raised product selling prices through downstream price transmission mechanisms, with the benefit of higher average prices offsetting the impact of reduced shipment volumes.
On the capital flows front, foreign institutional positioning in certain PV equipment stocks continues. Semi-annual report data shows that as of June 30, QFII appeared among the top 10 tradable shareholders of 22 PV equipment stocks, with combined holdings valued at 4.527 billion yuan (approximately $675.3 million) based on closing prices that day. Sungrow Power, TCL Zhonghuan, and Trina Solar ranked as the top three, with QFII holdings valued at 1.524 billion yuan (approximately $227.3 million), 739 million yuan (approximately $110.2 million), and 347 million yuan (approximately $51.8 million) respectively.
Zhongji Innolight cast a direct vote of confidence in the long-cycle AI computing power trend with nearly 5 billion yuan in real capital, while LONGi Green Energy lit a signal of technological breakout amid the PV winter with three consecutive world records. The leading players on both tracks are answering the same question in their own ways: at the intersection of cycles and trends, how to convert capital and technology into genuine competitive moats.
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