Key Insights from Broker Morning Meetings: The Rise of Agentic AI is Driving Demand

At today’s brokerage morning meeting, Huatai Securities stated that the development of Agentic AI is driving demand, and the AI moment for CPUs has arrived; Zhongtai Securities noted that AI is driving the trend toward thinner electronic cloth, with loom shortages supporting a price increase; China International Capital Corporation (CICC) pointed out that supply in the oil shipping industry continues to be constrained, with the appreciation of fleet value boosting stock prices.

According to the information from Cailian Press on February 13, the three major indices collectively closed higher yesterday. The large and small indices diverged, with the micro-cap index falling more than 1%. The total trading volume of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges reached 2.14 trillion yuan, increasing by 157.5 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day. More than 3,200 individual stocks fell across the entire market. Sector-wise, the computing power industry chain surged collectively. The concept of computing power leasing gained momentum, the CPO concept rose rapidly, the computing power chip concept advanced in the afternoon, the liquid-cooled server concept showed strong performance, and the power grid equipment concept strengthened collectively. On the downside, consumer staples sectors weakened collectively. By the close, the Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.05%, the Shenzhen Component Index increased by 0.86%, and the ChiNext Index climbed by 1.32%.

At today’s brokerage morning meeting, Huatai Securities stated that the development of Agentic AI is driving demand, and the AI moment for CPUs has arrived; Zhongtai Securities noted that AI is driving the trend toward thinner electronic cloth, with loom shortages supporting a price increase; China International Capital Corporation (CICC) pointed out that supply in the oil shipping industry continues to be constrained, with the appreciation of fleet value boosting stock prices.

Huatai Securities: The development of Agentic AI drives demand; the AI era for CPUs has arrived.

Starting from 2025, with the rapid development of AI, cloud computing demand continues to grow, and the AI training/inference process significantly boosts general-purpose computing power. Coupled with Intel’s slow production ramp-up pace, a short-term supply-demand imbalance has emerged. Looking further ahead, the rapid advancement of Agentic AI is shifting AI workloads from compute-intensive to system-intensive. Tasks such as job scheduling, tool/API/script invocation, sandbox/virtual environment execution, data parsing, and compilation/testing can all be performed based on CPUs, significantly increasing the importance of CPUs in AI systems. We are optimistic about the high growth driven by Agentic AI, leading to a resurgence in CPU demand. We also strongly anticipate that the shortage of overseas CPUs will accelerate domestic CSPs’ adoption of domestically produced CPUs.

Zhongtai Securities: AI-driven trend towards thinner electronic cloth, loom shortage supports price increase

The unexpected price increase of electronic cloth during the off-season confirms the tight supply situation. According to Zhuochuang Information, on February 4, 2026, Linzhou Guangyuan’s 7628 cloth price rose by 0.55 yuan to 5.40 yuan (+11%), while International Composite Materials’ 7628 cloth price increased by 0.55 yuan to 5.20 yuan (+12%). Thin cloth prices also rose by 0.60 yuan (+11%). Since the beginning of this year, electronic cloth prices have been adjusted upward twice in quick succession, with the pace of price increases noticeably accelerating and the magnitude significantly expanding. Particularly against the backdrop of the traditional off-season, this round of price hikes has been abrupt and sharp, fully confirming the tight supply situation. In the short term, the pricing logic of electronic cloth will be dominated by scarcity. We recommend paying close attention to leading companies with production capacity scale and cost advantages.

CITIC JianTou: The oil shipping industry faces continued supply restrictions, with fleet value appreciation driving up stock values.

Due to expanded sanctions by Europe and the US on shadow fleets, especially since early 2025 when the US intensified its sanctions, effective shipping capacity in the market has been reduced, pushing up the average freight rates and increasing volatility during peak seasons. Currently, approximately 16% of the VLCC fleet falls under restricted vessels, particularly Aframax ships, with 33% closely linked to Russia. In 2025, OPEC changed its previous strategy of production cuts and shifted to production increases, entering a substantive phase of output expansion. Concerns over potential crude oil supply disruptions led China to begin replenishing its inventory. Due to expanded sanctions by Europe and the US on shadow fleets, around 16% of the current VLCC fleet is restricted. The appreciation rate of ten-year-old VLCCs reached 85%, and the rise in fleet value has driven up stock value.