SINOLINK SECURITIES·2025-04-20 10:54Investment Rating - The report suggests focusing on sectors driven by AI development, including servers, IDC, switches, switch chips, optical modules, and liquid cooling, as well as overseas markets for servers, switches, and optical modules [4] Core Insights - China Unicom's Q1 2025 financial report shows growth driven by cloud and IDC services, with cloud revenue at 19.72 billion yuan, up 18.1% year-on-year, and IDC revenue at 7.22 billion yuan, up 8.8% year-on-year [1] - Huawei's CloudMatrix 384 super node cluster, built on 384 Ascend chips, is expected to boost demand for optical modules, benefiting domestic suppliers [1] - The demand for inference computing continues to grow, driven by advancements in AI applications and multi-modal interactions [1][7] - Major tech companies are increasing investments in AI infrastructure, with Microsoft planning to invest approximately 80 billion USD in data centers for AI model training in FY2025 [7] Summary by Sections Communication Sector - The communication industry in China saw a 0.9% growth in Q1 2025, with operators focusing on cloud and computing services to drive AI demand [1][3] - The three major operators achieved a total telecom revenue of 295 billion yuan in the first two months of 2025, reflecting a 0.9% year-on-year increase [17] Server Sector - The server index increased by 1.28% this week, with a projected significant rise in inference demand in 2025 as AI applications expand from centralized cloud services to mass terminals [6] - Domestic ASIC chip manufacturers and server OEMs like ZTE and Unisplendour are expected to benefit from the restructuring of the chip market due to tariff policies [6] Optical Module Sector - The optical module index decreased by 0.26% this week, with a notable decline of 11.26% for the month [10] - The CloudMatrix 384 system's architecture is expected to significantly increase the demand for optical modules, with 6,912 400G LPO modules utilized [10] IDC Sector - The IDC index decreased by 2.17% this week, with a 12.16% decline for the month [13] - Data centers are expected to benefit from the large-scale construction of computing infrastructure in 2025, with companies like Data Port and Runjian actively participating in operator collaborations [3][13]