A company that started with outdoor gear now sees its chip business account for over a third of total revenue. In Q1 2026, Toread's chip revenue reached 179 million yuan, soaring 206.92% year-on-year and representing 36.09% of total revenue. This single-quarter chip revenue nearly matched the full-year chip revenue of 230 million yuan in 2025, signaling that its "outdoor + chip" dual-pillar strategy has moved from planning to a phase of substantial profit contribution.
Data Behind the Industry Signal
Overall financial performance in Q1 showed total revenue of 496 million yuan, up 39.41% year-on-year, with non-GAAP net profit of 63.94 million yuan, up 32.36%. The semi-annual forecast released in July confirmed the trend: net profit for the first half is expected to grow 128.92% to 178.69%, with non-GAAP net profit growth even higher at 166.58% to 211.01%, indicating stronger core business profitability.
Importantly, chip business growth is driven by core technology rather than M&A. Its subsidiary Shanghai Tongtu Semiconductor holds full-stack AI data compression technology, covering input data, intermediate states, and model parameters. Input data can be compressed to one-fifth of its original size, intermediate data is compressed 50% further than Google's TurboQuant, and trillion-parameter models can be compressed by 30%. The solution requires no retraining and is plug-and-play, significantly lowering the computing power barrier for deploying large models on edge devices.
Compression Tech: Key to Edge AI Deployment
The edge AI market is expanding rapidly. Industry estimates show China's edge AI market growing from 600 billion yuan in 2026 to 2.1 trillion yuan by 2030, with the AI data compression segment seeing a CAGR of over 50% in the next five years. Tongtu's technical path aligns closely with Google's TurboQuant, and company VP Wang Hongjian stated at the ZGC Forum that "using compression to liberate computing power" is a confirmed industry direction.
This technological moat is translating into industrial partnerships. Tongtu's AI compression IP has been adopted by over 20 leading domestic chip design firms. In June, it signed a strategic agreement with an automotive-grade AI chip leader for joint development of large-model bandwidth compression, targeting efficient deployment in smart driving and robotics. Simultaneously, Tongtu signed an MOU with global ecosystem platform GNS, and its G2 Touch controller chip has entered multiple automakers' supply chains.
Outdoor Business: From Extreme Environments to Smart Upgrades
While chip business thrives, the outdoor segment remains solid. Q1 outdoor revenue was 315 million yuan, up 8.02% year-on-year on a high base. More notably, the company is leveraging chip technology to innovate outdoor products, creating a differentiated path of "chip-driven outdoor, scenario feedback to chip R&D."
In June 2026, the self-developed smart exoskeleton Crest C3 began pre-sales at 7,699 yuan, weighing just 1.8 kg with a 10:1 thrust-to-weight ratio and next-gen AI gait algorithms. During the 618 pre-sale, daily sales exceeded 100 units, with buyers spreading to non-first-tier cities. In March, the company unveiled an outdoor hiking smart shoe at the ZGC Forum, integrating high-precision sensing modules and an AI agent. From underlying chips to end products, a fully self-controlled closed loop is forming.
Toread's extreme-environment expertise spans 27 years. From Shenzhou-12 to Shenzhou-23, astronauts wore over ten types of cabin equipment developed and produced by the company, 100% domestically made, with involvement in setting relevant space suit standards. Since 2009, it has provided 17 consecutive years of equipment support for China's Antarctic and Arctic expeditions, building the "Polar Bionic Technology Platform 2.0." In 2020, its HIMEX series provided full high-altitude protection for the Mount Everest elevation survey team. For the "Jiaolong" deep-sea submersible, it developed complete working gear for pilots. These extreme-environment validations are gradually translating into reliable protection for mass-market outdoor gear.
Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility
On governance, Toread has paid cash dividends for three consecutive years, totaling nearly 39 million yuan from 2023 to 2025, exceeding 30% of average annual net profit. In July 2026, following typhoon-triggered floods in Guangxi, the company donated 20 million yuan worth of outdoor equipment. It has also protected the Hoh Xil ecological barrier for 21 consecutive years, donating nearly 10 million yuan in equipment.