RMB 186.88 per share, an issuance volume of 10 million shares, and RMB 1.8688 billion in raised funds.
On August 18, Precilasers Technology (688826.SH) debuted on the STAR Market, becoming the highest-priced new stock in the A-share market in 2026 with an issue price of RMB 186.88. Why can such a precision photonics company, which generated only RMB 418 million in revenue in 2025, secure such an issue price?
On the surface, the answer can easily be attributed to "small-cap + scarcity." After the issuance, Precilasers's total share capital is only 40 million shares, with a total market capitalization of approximately RMB 7.475 billion. However, explaining Precilasers solely through the lens of share scarcity risks overlooking truly valuable industry signals.
The capital market is assigning a higher valuation weight to a category of upstream technology that has rarely been priced independently in the past: precision laser light sources.
Behind the RMB 186.88 Price Tag, Scarcity Extends Beyond Shares
Precilasers's listing structure indeed naturally possesses strong share scarcity.
The company publicly issued 10 million shares, accounting for 25% of the total share capital post-issuance, bringing the total post-issuance share capital to just 40 million shares. In the early stage of listing, the number of unrestricted shares actually entering secondary market trading was only 7.6178 million. Calculated at the issue price, this corresponds to an initial free-float market capitalization of approximately RMB 1.42 billion.
Under the STAR Market trading mechanism, such a floating structure can easily amplify price elasticity in the early stage of listing.
However, attributing the high issue price entirely to the "small-cap effect" still fails to explain why institutions were willing to accept a diluted P/E ratio of 49.42 times excluding non-recurring gains and losses in the primary market, nor why industrial capitals such as Biwin Storage, Zhongwei Semiconductor, BOE, Semight Instruments, Lead Intelligent, and Delong Laser were willing to participate in the strategic placement.
Precilasers occupies a highly unique position in the industrial chain.
In the past, the most mature narrative in China's laser industry was industrial processing. Raycus Laser produces high-power fiber lasers, while Han's Laser integrates lasers into cutting, welding, marking, and precision processing equipment. Under this industrial logic, the competitive metrics are very clear: power continues to rise, electro-optical efficiency steadily improves, and cost per watt keeps dropping, ultimately entering larger industrial markets through scale manufacturing.
Precilasers faces a different category of demand.
The prospectus describes the differences between precision lasers and ordinary industrial lasers quite directly: apart from vastly different wavelength requirements, precision lasers have significantly higher demands for linewidth, noise, beam quality, operating temperature, and even device cleanliness. Especially in the fields of quantum technology and semiconductors, there is a need to achieve long coherence lengths and narrow spectral lines that are difficult for ordinary lasers to realize. Currently, this market is still predominantly occupied by leading international manufacturers.
This also constitutes the first and most core layer of logic behind Precilasers's valuation:
The capital market is buying a capability in precision light sources that can penetrate the underlying layers of quantum computing, semiconductors, and high-end optical instruments.
From 2023 to 2025, the company's overall gross profit margin reached 69.42%, 70.07%, and 69.32%, respectively. In the hardware manufacturing industry, such gross margins are uncommon. The explanation provided in the prospectus is that high-performance customized products, such as those with high power and special wavelengths, have high technical added value, granting the company strong pricing power.
The simultaneous occurrence of high gross margins and small scale often signifies a typical stage of technology industrialization: the product has proven its scarcity, but the market has not yet fully opened up.
What Makes It So Difficult to Compress Laser Linewidth from "Usable" to kHz or Even Lower?
To understand Precilasers, one must first understand a key metric: linewidth.
In reality, laser light is not a single frequency in a mathematical sense, but has a certain frequency distribution around the center frequency. The narrower this distribution, the better the monochromaticity of the light, the longer the coherence length, and the more precise the frequency control.
When cutting a steel plate, whether the linewidth is tens of kHz or several MHz is usually not the primary concern; however, when the laser is targeting a specific energy level transition of an atom, even a minute frequency drift can derail the entire experiment.
This is the technical entry point for precision lasers.
Precilasers has built a technical route of "seed source + fiber amplification + nonlinear frequency conversion + frequency stabilization": first, a fiber DFB or semiconductor seed source generates low-power, low-noise, narrow-linewidth laser light, which is then amplified by a fiber amplifier; subsequently, nonlinear frequency conversions such as frequency doubling, sum-frequency, and difference-frequency generation are used to obtain the required special wavelengths; finally, precise control is achieved through frequency locking, frequency shifting, beam splitting, and beam combining. Its technology platform can cover the 177nm–5000nm band.
The most noteworthy aspect of this is the seed source.
The prospectus discloses that the company's fiber DFB seed lasers can achieve single-frequency output in the ranges of 1010–1162nm, 1525–1610nm, and 1695–2140nm, with a linewidth reaching 1kHz; the fixed external cavity semiconductor lasers cover 450–1625nm, emphasizing low intensity noise, frequency stability, and high tuning bandwidth.
The real difficulty lies in the fact that once the laser power is amplified, the originally excellent spectral characteristics are not naturally preserved.
Power enhancement introduces new noise, nonlinear effects, and thermal effects; frequency conversion involves nonlinear crystals, phase matching, and temperature control; and the frequency stabilization system must rely on high-bandwidth servo circuits, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, or ultra-stable optical cavities to continuously correct frequency drift.
Therefore, the laser ultimately presented to the customer is actually the result of the combined action of fiber optic devices, semiconductor lasers, nonlinear optics, analog and digital control, crystal materials, and precision mechanics.
Precilasers has formed a series of technology platforms around this technical route, including low-noise laser driving, high-bandwidth servo control, high-end fiber optic devices, single-frequency DFB fiber lasers, highly efficient nonlinear frequency conversion, high-power continuous-wave deep ultraviolet, ultra-stable cavity frequency stabilization, and optical frequency combs.
Quantum information has become the most ideal "extreme testing ground" for validating these technologies.
Taking neutral atom quantum computing as an example, a system needs to use lasers of different wavelengths to perform atom cooling, trapping, excitation, manipulation, and readout. The prospectus even mentions that the requirements for light sources in 10,000-qubit neutral atom quantum computing can be summarized as ultra-broadband, ultra-high power, ultra-low noise, and high frequency stability, while the cost proportion of the laser system in the entire neutral atom quantum computing system can exceed 40%.
This is also the market where PinnZhun has taken the lead in achieving breakthroughs in recent years.
In 2024, the company's market share in the global quantum information laser market reached 9.21%, and its market share in the Chinese quantum technology laser market reached 16.85%. Its products have entered research institutions and quantum enterprises such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, and are also sold to overseas research institutions such as Harvard University, Caltech, and MIT. The company also explicitly acknowledged in the prospectus that the international market still has strong manufacturers such as Germany's Toptica and the US's Coherent, and there is still a gap in market share between PinnZhun and international leaders.
Therefore, "breaking overseas monopolies" needs to be accurately understood.
PinnZhun cannot yet claim to comprehensively replace global manufacturers like Toptica and Coherent. The real breakthrough it has achieved is providing domestic alternatives for a batch of high-end precision light sources that were previously highly dependent on imports, and these products have already entered actual scientific research and industrial equipment.
What Truly Determines the Valuation Ceiling is Moving from Quantum Labs into Wafer Fabs
However, quantum technology also leaves PinnZhun with a very realistic problem: the technology is difficult enough, but the market is temporarily not large enough.
Citing data from QY Research, the prospectus states that the market size for lasers in China's quantum information field was approximately USD 101 million in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 300 million by 2030; during the same period, the demand scale for semiconductor equipment lasers was about USD 528 million, projected to reach USD 1.093 billion by 2030. The company itself has also listed "the relatively small market size of precision lasers" as a risk factor.
Therefore, the most critical commercial question for PinnZhun after its listing is very clear:
Can the ultimate light source capability honed in quantum research be transferred to a larger industrial market?
The semiconductor sector has already provided the first-stage answer.
In 2023, the company's semiconductor business revenue was only RMB 25.1487 million; by 2025, it had grown to RMB 104.46 million, more than quadrupling in two years, with its proportion of total revenue increasing from 17.53% to 25.50%. During the same period, the proportion of the quantum technology business decreased from 80.02% to 69.90%.
Since 2022, PinnZhun has transferred the light source technology accumulated in the quantum field to wafer manufacturing, wafer metrology and inspection, and wafer stealth dicing, completing the R&D of dozens of related light sources; the prospectus discloses that the company has cumulatively delivered over 800 sets of core light source equipment to the semiconductor industry chain.
This migration path is highly smooth at the physical level.
Wafer metrology and inspection, precision displacement measurement, optical defect inspection, and some interferometry also require stable wavelengths, low noise, narrow linewidth, high coherence, and high beam quality. As process precision continues to improve, how accurately equipment can "measure" increasingly depends on how accurately the underlying light source can "illuminate."
This is also why the strategic placement list for this IPO deserves careful examination.
Biwin Storage subscribed for approximately RMB 30 million and was ultimately allocated 160,530 shares; Semight Instruments subscribed for approximately RMB 20 million and was allocated 107,020 shares. One company is at the storage and advanced packaging end, and the other is at the high-speed optoelectronic testing instrument end; both seem far removed from quantum lasers.
But if PinnZhun is defined as a "high-precision light source supplier," the industrial relationships immediately become clear.
According to strategic cooperation materials, the collaboration between Biwin and PinnZhun has already pointed towards wafer manufacturing and advanced process equipment, and the two parties will explore the customized application of precision lasers in related equipment.
Semight Instrument is even more noteworthy. One end of their cooperation is PinnZhun's high-reliability laser light sources, and the other end is Semight's high-end testing equipment: Semight leverages this to improve the autonomy and controllability of its core light source supply chain, while PinnZhun utilizes Semight's testing equipment to refine its validation capabilities from R&D to mass production. Semight's current business further extends to the testing of 400G, 800G, and even 1.6T optical modules and optical chips.
After Achieving Domestic Leadership, the Real Battle is for the Global High-End Precision Light Source Market
The real competitors faced by Precilasers still primarily come from overseas high-end laser manufacturers.
In the quantum technology and precision scientific research light source market, the main international manufacturers listed in the prospectus include Germany's Toptica, America's Spectra-Physics, Denmark's NKT, and America's RIO. Among them, Toptica has long been deeply engaged in scientific research and quantum applications, with products covering semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers, frequency combs, etc., making it one of the most important international benchmarks for PinnZhun in the field of quantum precision light sources; NKT has strong accumulation in single-frequency fiber lasers, supercontinuum, and special optical fibers. In the domestic market, there are also scientific research laser manufacturers such as Wavicle Laser, UniQuanta, and Connet Fiber Optics, but the prospectus explicitly states that PinnZhun is currently in a leading position in domestic market share among domestic brands.
The competitive landscape in the semiconductor market is somewhat different. For precision laser light sources used in equipment such as wafer manufacturing and metrology/inspection, the current main suppliers include America's Coherent, Japan's Oxide, America's IPG, as well as domestic enterprises like Precilasers, Grace Laser, and Changchun New Industries. In particular, Coherent and Oxide represent the international manufacturers that PinnZhun truly needs to benchmark against head-on after entering the semiconductor market. Oxide has long been positioning itself in nonlinear crystals and ultraviolet/deep ultraviolet light sources, and its products have entered scenarios such as semiconductor inspection; Coherent possesses comprehensive platform capabilities covering multiple technical routes including semiconductor lasers, excimer lasers, and gas lasers.
Therefore, PinnZhun's current market position can be summarized in one sentence: it is in the first tier of domestic precision lasers, with some technical indicators entering the international competitive range, but there is still a significant scale gap compared to global comprehensive laser giants.
This judgment can also be verified by market share.
According to calculations citing QY Research data in the prospectus, in 2024, Precilasers's market share in the global quantum technology laser market reached 9.21%, and its market share in the Chinese quantum technology laser market reached 16.85%; in the semiconductor field, the company achieved revenue of approximately RMB 75 million in 2024, corresponding to a domestic market share of about 1.98% for related laser light sources.
Looking at these three numbers together, one can clearly see the current development stage of PinnZhun.
The quantum market has completed the leap from a "player in domestic substitution" to a "global competitor." A global share of nearly 10% means it no longer relies solely on domestic scientific research projects for survival, but is able to enter the supply systems of top scientific research institutions in Europe and the US. In terms of some special wavelengths and power indicators, the company already possesses international competitiveness.
But the semiconductor market has just begun.
A 1.98% share indicates that wafer manufacturing and metrology/inspection are currently still markets dominated by international manufacturers. The prospectus also explicitly points out that the global semiconductor inspection and metrology equipment market is highly concentrated, with US and Japanese enterprises holding the main shares, and their core precision light sources have also long been provided by international laser manufacturers.
The most valuable aspect of PinnZhun lies precisely in its simultaneous presence in two markets at different stages:
The quantum business has proven the technology, while the semiconductor business is validating the scale.
This is also the biggest difference between PinnZhun and listed companies such as Raycus Laser, JPT, Everbright Photonics, and Source Photonics.
Raycus Laser's core competitiveness lies in high-power industrial fiber lasers, with the core of competition being power, electro-optical efficiency, cost, and scale manufacturing; Everbright Photonics and Source Photonics are closer to semiconductor laser chips, with barriers concentrated in epitaxy, wafer processes, and InP/GaAs device manufacturing; JPT spans MOPA lasers and laser processing and inspection equipment. PinnZhun's core of competition is closer to the physical parameters of light itself—whether wavelengths can be covered, whether linewidth can be further compressed, whether noise can be reduced, and whether frequency can remain stable over the long term.
Conversely, this also explains why the capital market is willing to give PinnZhun a higher technology valuation.
It is not facing a mature market that has been fully localized and relies on price competition, but rather a group of upstream precision light sources still controlled by overseas manufacturers with extremely high technical barriers. In the future, if PinnZhun can replicate the technological advantages already validated in the quantum field to wafer metrology and inspection, advanced semiconductor equipment, and high-end optoelectronic testing, its growth logic will further shift from "leading domestic scientific research laser manufacturer" to "global precision light source platform."
After a 49x P/E Ratio, the Capital Market is Waiting for the Second Industrialization
In terms of performance, PinnZhun has already delivered a quite impressive growth curve.
From 2023 to 2025, the company's operating revenue grew from RMB 147.7 million to RMB 291.9 million and RMB 417.9 million, with a three-year compound growth rate of 68.20%; in 2025, it still grew by 43.19% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2026, the company's revenue was RMB 101.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 55.21%, and its net profit attributable to shareholders excluding non-recurring gains and losses was RMB 28.0578 million, a year-on-year increase of 50.36%.
The company expects to achieve revenue of RMB 230 million to RMB 260 million in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 27.58% to 44.22%; it expects net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 90 million to RMB 105 million, a year-on-year increase of 26.93% to 48.08%. It should be noted that this is still a preliminary estimate during the IPO stage and does not constitute a profit forecast or performance commitment.
Such growth can support a certain technology premium, but it also means that the assessment standards post-listing will rapidly increase.
The first pressure comes from the quantum industry itself.
Quantum computing is still in a period of technical route competition. Solutions such as neutral atoms, ion traps, superconducting, and photonic quantum are still being advanced in parallel, and the demand for lasers varies greatly across different routes. PinnZhun's prospectus explicitly warns that if the development of quantum computing routes relying on precision lasers falls short of expectations, the company's demand will also be affected.
The second pressure comes from the scaling of the semiconductor business.
Growing from RMB 25 million to RMB 100 million has proven that the technology can be transferred, but moving from RMB 100 million to RMB 500 million or RMB 1 billion tests a different set of capabilities: standardized products, supply chain management, batch consistency, equipment customer validation cycles, and continuous cost reduction.
The "best parameters" in the laboratory must ultimately be converted into reliability data that wafer fabs can run continuously for years.
The listing of Precilasers may represent a new value migration emerging in China's hard tech industry: in the past, domestic substitution first solved the issue of whether complete machines and systems existed, then moved deep into chips and core modules; now, the competition is continuing to push towards a more fundamental level—light sources, crystals, materials, precision optical devices, and core components that determine the physical limits of equipment.
Finally, Precilasers itself has already begun to layout upstream. The prospectus discloses that the company is promoting the independent R&D of core components such as light source materials and optical components, and is attempting to extend to links such as crystal growth, hoping to form independent capabilities from core components and laser modules to systems.
As China's semiconductor and photonics industry chains continue to advance upstream, the focus of the next stage of domestic substitution is shifting from "whether a piece of equipment can be built" to "whether key devices can be mastered."