BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- China's listed companies are reporting their 2025 annual results, with data pointing to a fact that tech-driven earnings growth is emerging as a powerful new engine.

Of more than 1,200 companies that had filed annual reports as of Friday morning, nearly 90 percent turned a profit, according to data provider Wind. Firms in high-tech industries, including artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and telecommunications, stood out, suggesting that their sustained innovation efforts have translated into tangible performance gains.

Leading chipmaker SMIC posted a record high revenue of 67.32 billion yuan (about 9.77 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 16.49 percent from a year ago, with net profits reaching a three-year best. AI chip company Cambricon Technologies delivered an even more striking turnaround, reporting its first-ever annual profit of nearly 2.06 billion yuan since listing, with revenue up more than fourfold.

Meanwhile, battery giant CATL reported a 17 percent increase in revenue and a 42 percent increase in net profits as it extended the dominance in the global power battery market. Foxconn Industrial Internet, a major consumer electronics manufacturer, posted around 50 percent growth in both revenue and profits, crediting AI as the core engine of its growth.

Analysts attributed the strong performance of tech companies to their ability to capitalize on the rapid expansion of the AI industry by combining core technological breakthroughs with accelerating commercialization, thereby bringing greater resilience and potential to the broader economy.

"The explosive growth in hard tech is not an isolated phenomenon," said Tian Lihui, head of the Institute of Financial Development at Nankai University. "It reflects a resonance between the global tech revolution and China's industrial upgrading strategy."

China is stepping up innovation efforts to cultivate new growth engines and accelerate economic transformation.

"Corporate earnings are painting a clear structural picture of this transformation -- a shift from traditional factor-driven growth to a new paradigm led by technological innovation and global competitiveness," Tian said.

This shift is also reflected in equity markets. While traditional sectors such as real estate remain under significant pressure, tech manufacturing and emerging industries are delivering robust returns.

Such momentum is supported by sustained policy incentives. China's research and development spending reached 3.93 trillion yuan in 2025, the second-highest in the world, with annual growth averaging 10 percent between 2021 and 2025. Tax relief and fee reductions supporting tech innovation and manufacturing exceeded 2.8 trillion yuan last year.

The sci-tech innovation board, commonly known as the STAR Market, has also channeled increasing support to companies in high-tech and strategic emerging sectors.

Looking ahead, cultivating innovation remains central to China's economic agenda. This year's government work report called for building integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, and the low-altitude economy into emerging pillar sectors, while fostering future industries, including quantum technology, embodied AI, and 6G.

Official estimates showed that output from these emerging pillar industries had already approached 6 trillion yuan in 2025 and could more than double to over 10 trillion yuan by 2030, becoming the new engine for the country's high-quality development.

Notably, given the widespread application of AI, "creating new forms of smart economy" appeared in the government work report for the first time this year.

Zhang Li, head of the China Center for Information Industry Development, said intelligent agents, AI-native applications, and humanoid robots are beginning to find viable business models, with deep AI integration set to reshape value chains across multiple industries.

Expanding the breadth and depth of AI's role across all sectors will unlock new space for China's development, analysts said.