AI Concept Stocks Mid-Year Report Rally Begins: Computing Power Rental Leaders Lead with Exceeding Forecasts
On August 5, 2026, as A-share mid-year report disclosures entered the peak period, the AI concept stock sector once again became the market focus. As of today's close, the Wind AI Concept Index rose by 2.34%, with the computing power rental sub-sector performing particularly prominently, with several leading individual stocks hitting the limit intraday. Industry insiders pointed out that benefiting from the continuous explosion of global AI large model training and inference demand, the order saturation and capacity utilization rate of leading computing power rental companies have reached record highs, with mid-year performance forecasts generally exceeding 50%, and some even exceeding 80%.
Specifically, domestic computing power rental leader Company A released its 2026 semi-annual performance forecast, expecting a year-on-year increase in net profit attributable to shareholders of 75% to 85%, far exceeding the previous market expectation of about 60%. The company stated that during the reporting period, the online rate and rental rate of the company's GPU cluster were maintained at above 95%, and new long-term contracts from multiple large customers in the fields of finance, healthcare, and autonomous driving were added. Boosted by this news, Company A's stock opened higher and closed higher today, with a closing increase of 9.8%, driving the trading volume of the entire computing power rental sector to a three-month high.
Another company B, focusing on edge AI computing power services, also delivered an impressive performance, with a mid-year net profit forecast increase of about 55%, mainly benefiting from the surge in demand for lightweight computing power from the Internet of Things and smart terminals. The CEO of Company B pointed out in the earnings conference call that the company has reached cooperation with multiple new energy vehicle manufacturers to provide on-device AI inference computing power support, with revenue in this business segment increasing by more than 120% year-on-year.
Institutional Funds Accelerate Position Adjustment: From "Computing Power Infrastructure" to "Application Monetization"
Notably, although the mid-year performance of computing power rental leaders is strong, the flow of institutional funds shows obvious structural differentiation. According to today's post-market Dragon and Tiger List data, some previously rising computing equipment stocks encountered institutional net selling, while AI application and DeFAI concept stocks with clear application scenarios and cash flow support received counter-trend capital injections.
A fund manager at a large public fund said in an interview that the AI investment logic in the first half of 2026 is undergoing a shift from "violent burning of money" to "precise blood generation". Although computing power rental orders are full, industry competition is intensifying, leading to gross margin pressure. On the contrary, subdivided sectors that can truly convert AI technology into sustainable income and profit, such as encrypted AI lending, AI risk control, and RWA on-chain finance, show stronger performance resilience. "We are migrating part of our positions from pure computing power hardware to AI applications and DeFAI tracks, especially those leading companies that have achieved profit closure," the fund manager added.
From today's market performance, the encrypted AI lending leader Company C's stock rose by 5.2%, with its latest disclosed operational data showing that the platform's loan issuance volume in the second quarter increased by 35% month-on-month, with a default rate controlled below 1.2%, significantly better than traditional P2P lending platforms. In addition, AI risk control concept stock Company D also recorded a 4.8% increase, as the company just obtained a patent for on-chain credit scoring-based technology, expected to further consolidate its moat in DeFi risk control.
Sector Differentiation Intensifies: DeFAI Concept Stocks Attract Capital Against the Trend, Traditional Computing Power Stocks Under Pressure
Although the mid-year forecast of computing power rental leaders is bright, the differentiation within the entire AI concept stock sector is further intensifying. On the one hand, "shovel sellers" such as computing power rental and AI chips have considerable revenue growth, but market concerns about the slowdown in growth rate in the next two years are rising. A brokerage research report pointed out that as domestic and foreign technology giants accelerate self-developed AI chips, the bargaining power of third-party computing power rental may face an inflection point in the second half of the year, with the overall sector valuation facing a callback risk.
On the other hand, "gold diggers" represented by DeFAI, AI risk control, and RWA on-chain finance are receiving capital追捧 due to clear business models and stable cash flows. Today, the DeFAI concept stock sector as a whole rose by 3.6%, far exceeding the 0.8% increase of the AI chip sector. Among them, the encrypted AI lending leader Company E announced that its platform's total locked-in value (TVL) exceeded 5 billion US dollars, a historic high, driving related concept stocks to strengthen collectively.
Market analysts believe that this differentiation essentially reflects investors' cognitive shift from "infrastructure investment" to "application value realization" in the AI industry. As AI large model technology matures, the market is beginning to pay more attention to which companies can truly convert AI capabilities into business closures, and the DeFAI track happens to occupy a first-mover advantage in this round of value re-evaluation.
Outlook: Focus on Performance Certainty and Application Scenario Implementation
Looking forward to the second half of the year, investment opportunities in AI concept stocks will focus more on performance certainty and application scenario implementation capability. From the post-market institutional research situation, many leading institutions indicate they will focus on the following three main lines:
- The medium to long-term order visibility of computing power rental leaders. Although short-term performance is explosive, investors need to be alert to the risk of supply-demand imbalance that may be brought by the release of new capacity after 2027, and prefer companies that have locked in long-term agreements with large customers.
- The compliance process of DeFAI and encrypted AI lending. As regulatory frameworks for encrypted assets gradually become clear in major global economies, compliant DeFAI platforms are expected to gain greater development space, especially those that have obtained regulatory licenses or entered regulatory sandboxes.
- The integrated innovation of AI risk control and RWA on-chain finance. The maturity of technologies such as on-chain credit scoring and smart contract automatic execution is promoting the deep integration of RWA (real-world assets) and DeFi, with related concept stocks having long-term growth potential.
Overall, the AI concept stock market in August 2026 is not a simple broad rally, but a structural re-evaluation around "performance realization" and "business model verification". For investors, instead of chasing short-term hotspots, it is better to deeply analyze the competitive landscape and profit sustainability of each subdivided sector, in order to achieve steady progress in the second half of the AI investment game.
