The biggest obstacle to edge AI deployment is not computing power but data movement. During large model inference, massive parameters and intermediate data are frequently transferred between chip memory and computing units, making bandwidth a hard bottleneck. Toread's subsidiary Shanghai Tongtu Semiconductor has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Horizon Robotics to jointly develop large model bandwidth compression technology, targeting this industry pain point.
Technical Breakthrough: Three-Layer Compression System
Tongtu has built a full-stack compression technology system covering three layers: input data, intermediate data, and model parameters. At the input layer, for large-capacity data like video, the data volume can be compressed to one-fifth of the original, significantly reducing the input bandwidth pressure on edge devices. At the intermediate layer, for data such as KV Cache generated during inference, compression can achieve an additional 50% reduction compared to Google's TurboQuant algorithm, effectively alleviating the memory wall bottleneck. At the model parameter layer, for models with hundreds of billions or trillions of parameters, parameter compression can reach 30%, all without retraining and plug-and-play.
This technical path is highly consistent with Google's TurboQuant memory compression algorithm, jointly confirming that 'using compression to free computing power' is a deterministic industry direction. Tongtu CEO Wang Hongjian stated at the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference that the technology systematically optimizes from three dimensions: input features, intermediate representation data, and model weight parameters, directly targeting the data movement bottleneck in AI computing systems.
Performance Verification: Chip Business as First Growth Curve
The confidence in technical layout is ultimately validated by performance data. In the first quarter of 2026, Toread achieved revenue of 496 million yuan, up 39.41% year-on-year; net profit attributable to parent company was 56.4457 million yuan, up 14.44%; and non-GAAP net profit was 63.9395 million yuan, up 32.36%. The chip business performed particularly well: Q1 main business revenue was 179 million yuan, up 206.92% year-on-year, accounting for 36.09% of total revenue. The chip business has become the first curve driving company growth, while the outdoor business grew 8.02% year-on-year, forming a strong dual-main business pattern.
Institutional signals are also positive. On June 17, Toread received surveys from 11 institutions. Huaxi Securities maintained a 'buy' rating, forecasting net profits of 237 million, 369 million, and 454 million yuan for 2025-2027 respectively. CICC raised its 2026 revenue forecast by 29% to 1.952 billion yuan and EPS forecast by 60% to 0.15 yuan.
Strategic Depth: Dual-Business Synergy Accelerates Full-Chain Autonomy
Since establishing the 'outdoor + chip' dual-main business strategy in 2021, Toread has acquired five chip-related companies, building a chip product matrix covering the full chain of 'perception-interaction-display'. Tongtu's full-stack compression technology serves both as an independent chip business growth pole and as core technical support for Toread's second-generation smart sports exoskeleton and outdoor smart shoes. During the 618 shopping festival, the independently developed smart sports exoskeleton Crest C3 started pre-sales, achieving daily sales of over 100 units on Tmall, with a total weight of only 1.8 kg and a thrust-to-weight ratio of 10:1. Full-chain autonomy from underlying chips to end products is accelerating.
Horizon Robotics, as the cooperation partner, is a leading domestic provider of automotive-grade AI chips and intelligent driving computing solutions, with 2025 annual revenue of 3.758 billion yuan, up 57.7% year-on-year. In 2026, Horizon successively released China's first cockpit-driving integrated vehicle intelligent chip 'Starry 6P' and the vehicle intelligent operating system 'Kakaxia'. The joint development between Tongtu and Horizon will deeply integrate compression technology into automotive-grade chip platforms, optimizing inference bandwidth and memory usage in intelligent driving scenarios.
Market Outlook: Edge AI Blue Ocean Approaches
Wang Hongjian predicted at the Zhongguancun Forum that China's edge AI market size will likely grow from 600 billion yuan in 2026 to 2.1 trillion yuan by 2030. With its full-stack compression capabilities, Tongtu can widely enter eight major scenarios including personal devices, smart spaces, smart vehicles, industrial internet, embodied robots, and AR/VR wearables. For the textile industry, edge AI has enormous application potential in smart wearables, industrial internet quality inspection, and smart warehousing.