JCET Shares Surge on Advanced Chip-Packaging Investment

By Sherry Qin and Yang Jie

Shares in JCET Group continued to surge after China's largest semiconductor packaging and testing provider said it plans to invest more than $1 billion to boost its advanced chip-packaging capacity.

The stock rose by the 10% limit in Shanghai early Thursday, taking its 2026 gain to 183%. It is the third time this week that shares have risen by the daily maximum allowed under market rules.

The company will invest 7.8 billion yuan, equivalent to $1.15 billion, to establish a new high-end advanced packaging and testing facility in Shanghai, it said in an exchange filing Wednesday.

The construction will be in two phases, with the first, including plant construction and equipment investment, to be completed in the second half of 2028. JCET will scale up production capacity in the second phase, depending on market conditions.

The investment aims at accelerating the deployment of high-end advanced-packaging capacity, and enhancing its overall competitiveness, it said.

The expansion comes as China is pushing for chip self-sufficiency amid U.S. export controls. Mastering advanced packaging carries immense strategic weight for China, where production of cutting-edge silicon remains a hurdle. It offers a viable workaround by allowing domestic chip makers to stitch together mature nodes into high-performance systems, fueling a surge in localized supply chains to insulate against geopolitical friction.

As traditional chip shrinking hits physical limits, advanced packaging has become the front line of the battle for semiconductor performance gains. By tightly binding multiple chips together on a base, advanced packaging delivers the power of smaller, cutting-edge chips without requiring complex manufacturing equipment, making it crucial for high-performance computing and data centers driving today's artificial-intelligence boom.

The chip packaging and testing sector has entered an unprecedented upward cycle amid this trend.

Citi analysts view the investment as a positive catalyst for JCET, saying the plan reinforces its strategic resolve in advanced packaging at a time of accelerating domestic AI chip production.

Incremental advanced-packaging capacity coming online in the latter half of 2028 and 2029 positions JCET to capitalize on China's volume ramp-up in high-performance computing and networking, they wrote in a note.

As a top global player, JCET assembles and packages battery-management or wireless communication chips for global tech companies including Apple by operating production sites across China, South Korea and Singapore.

It reported first-quarter revenue of about 9 billion yuan, with net profit jumping more than 40% to 290 million yuan, driven by an optimized product mix and near-capacity utilization at its mature factories.

At an investor briefing in April, company executives said it focused on lucrative tech, such as those for AI chips and advanced data-storage devices, to avoid headwinds like tariffs eating into profits.

Write to Sherry Qin at sherry.qin@wsj.com and Yang Jie at jie.yang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 25, 2026 01:49 ET (05:49 GMT)