In the dual waves of AI computing power explosion and consumer electronics iteration, the three major listed companies in Guangdong, Shenghong Technology, Pengding Holdings, and Shennan Circuit, although located in the same Lingnan region, have taken distinctly different development paths. Their competitive landscape and strategic choices vividly reflect the upgrading of China’s PCB industry.
01 From Scale Competition to Track Racing
The competition in the PCB industry has long surpassed mere scale battles, with track selection becoming the core variable determining corporate growth. The performance data for the first half of 2025 clearly outlines the differentiation among the three companies:
-
Shenghong Technology: 9.031 billion yuan in revenue, 2.143 billion yuan in net profit, with a staggering year-on-year increase of 366.89% in net profit, and its market value once exceeding 200 billion yuan, making it the “king of PCB stocks”;
-
Pengding Holdings: 16.375 billion yuan in revenue, maintaining a scale advantage, with a net profit of 1.233 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 57.22%, but its market value is less than 70% of Shenghong Technology;
-
Shennan Circuit: 10.453 billion yuan in revenue, 1.36 billion yuan in net profit, firmly positioned in the midstream, with a net profit growth rate of 37.75% demonstrating the robustness driven by technology.
This reshaping of the landscape is driven by the different predictions and layouts of the three companies regarding industry trends.
02 Portraits of the Three Giants: Core Competitiveness Under Track Differences
1. Shenghong Technology: The “Dark Horse” in the AI Boom
Founded in 2006 in Huizhou, Guangdong, Shenghong Technology’s founder, Chen Tao, is known as the “monk sweeping the floor” in the PCB field. Born in 1972 in Longnan, Gansu, he joined the army at 18, and after retiring, transitioned to the Second Light Industry Bureau in Kashgar, Xinjiang. In 1996, he moved to Guangdong and began working in a Taiwanese-funded PCB factory, starting as a salesperson while also delving into technology. Due to outstanding performance, he quickly rose to the position of assistant to the chairman. However, he soon resigned to establish Shenghua Electronics (Huiyang) Co., Ltd., and founded Shenghong Technology (Huizhou) Co., Ltd. in 2006, which went public in 2015. Today, Shenghong Technology has become the only listed company in Huizhou with a market value exceeding 100 billion yuan.
In 2019, when the industry generally looked down on high-end HDI (High-Density Interconnect) boards, Chen Tao made a key decision that reshaped the industry position, leading Shenghong to exclusively enter this field. Ultimately, in 2023, it entered the supply chain for NVIDIA’s H-series AI accelerator cards, becoming a Tier 1 supplier in 2024. This layout accurately seized the opportunity of the AI computing power explosion, with revenue from AI computing-related products accounting for over 40% in the first quarter of 2025, achieving the number one market share in several sub-sectors globally.
Today, Shenghong Technology has formed a dual-engine structure of “AI server PCB + automotive board”: with over 40% market share in NVIDIA graphics card boards, while deeply binding with major new energy vehicle giants like Tesla. Its technical capabilities cover high-end products such as 28-layer accelerator cards and 6-stage HDI, with manufacturing capabilities for PCBs exceeding 100 layers ensuring its voice in high value-added fields.
2. Pengding Holdings: The “Transformation Challenge” of a Consumer Electronics Giant
Founded in 1999 in Shenzhen, Pengding Holdings’ founder, Shen Qingfang, was born in 1952 in Taoyuan Daxi, Taiwan. He entered a public bank in 1979, later switching to the securities industry, where he became the executive vice president of a securities company. In 1999, he served as the vice president in charge of finance at Yao Wen Electronics Industrial Co., Ltd., later promoted to general manager. In 2005, Shen Qingfang became the chairman of Fokai Precision Components (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., and in 2017, Fokai Precision was renamed Pengding Holdings (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., where he serves as chairman.Unlike Shenghong Technology, Shen Qingfang has a rich background in the financial industry, emphasizing environmentally friendly production in management, with the mission of “developing technology for the benefit of humanity; improving environmental protection to make the Earth better,” leading Pengding Holdings to implement the “Pengding Seven Green” concept.
As the global PCB leader with the highest revenue for eight consecutive years, Pengding Holdings has always been closely linked to the “core of the fruit chain.” In 2024, its sales to its largest customer (Apple) accounted for a staggering 81.94%, continuing to rise from 65.76% in 2019. In the consumer electronics field, the company has maintained the number one global market share for a long time, supplying key components such as SLP motherboards for products like the iPhone, thanks to its advantages in flexible board (FPC) technology.
Currently, facing the contrast between weak consumer electronics demand and the rise of the AI industry, Pengding Holdings is accelerating its transformation. The first phase of its factory in Thailand is set to trial production in May 2025, focusing on AI servers and automotive fields; at the same time, it plans to invest 8 billion yuan to build an industrial park in Huai’an, laying out SLP, high-end HDI, and other products to meet the demand for AI edge devices and smart vehicles. From “light, thin, short, and small” to “AI + automotive,” this giant is attempting to break the shackles of a single customer structure.
3. Shennan Circuit: The “All-Rounder” Built on Technical Barriers
Compared to the other two, Shennan Circuit’s uniqueness lies in its “3-In-One” business model—PCB, electronic assembly (PCBA), and packaging substrates developing in synergy, creating an unreplicable technical barrier. Its chairman, Yang Zhicheng, born in 1966, is a technical expert manager. After graduating with a master’s degree, he worked at Fiyada (Group) Co., Ltd., rising from a senior manager in the corporate management department to head of the assembly department and assistant general manager. He joined Shennan Circuit in September 2009.He has played an important role in technology research and development and standard setting, promoting the company’s continuous development in high-end fields such as communication equipment PCBs and packaging substrates.
In the communication equipment field, Shennan Circuit is a core supplier for Huawei and ZTE; in the semiconductor field, it is fully promoting the localization of high-end products such as FC-BGA packaging substrates, with its new factory in Guangzhou already achieving capacity release for ABF-type packaging substrates.
This multi-business synergy advantage continues to manifest in the AI era: Shennan Circuit is entering the 5G base station construction through communication boards, while also entering the supply chain for NVIDIA and Google’s AI servers with high-end PCBs, forming a diversified layout of “communication + AI + automotive.” The customer stickiness brought by technical barriers has allowed it to maintain performance stability amid industry fluctuations.
03 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of the Three Companies
1. Comparison of Supplier Bargaining Power
The upstream of the PCB industry mainly consists of suppliers of copper-clad laminates, copper foils, and other raw materials. Due to their large procurement scale, Shenghong Technology, Pengding Holdings, and Shennan Circuit have certain bargaining power over suppliers. However, some high-end raw materials, such as high-performance copper-clad laminates, may be monopolized by a few suppliers, giving them strong bargaining power. For example, in 2025, the price of upstream copper-clad laminate manufacturers increased by 5%-10%, putting certain cost pressure on companies like Pengding Holdings.
2. Analysis of Buyer Bargaining Power
The main buyers of the three companies include large enterprises such as Apple, NVIDIA, and Huawei, with a high concentration of buyers and strong bargaining power. However, Shenghong Technology has strong technical advantages and market positions in the AI server PCB field, Pengding Holdings in the Apple supply chain, and Shennan Circuit in the communication equipment PCB and packaging substrate fields, which can alleviate buyer bargaining pressure to some extent.
3. Threat of Potential Entrants
The entry barrier in the PCB industry is relatively low, but the technical barriers in the high-end PCB field are high, making it difficult for potential entrants to break through in the short term. Shenghong Technology, Pengding Holdings, and Shennan Circuit have significant advantages in technology, customer resources, and production capacity, making it challenging for new entrants to compete.
4. Threat of Substitutes
Currently, PCBs are irreplaceable in electronic devices, but with technological advancements, such as improvements in chip packaging technology, there may be some impact on PCB demand. However, all three companies are actively researching new technologies, such as Shenghong Technology developing high-multilayer PCBs with over 100 layers, and Shennan Circuit promoting mass production of FC-BGA substrates, to address potential substitute threats.
5. Analysis of Competitive Intensity Among Industry Rivals
The global PCB industry has a low concentration, but the high-end market is highly concentrated, with Shenghong Technology, Pengding Holdings, and Shennan Circuit having a competitive relationship in the high-end PCB field. Shenghong Technology has a clear advantage in the AI server PCB field, Pengding Holdings dominates in consumer electronics PCBs, and Shennan Circuit is strong in communication equipment PCBs and packaging substrates, with the three companies using differentiated competition to avoid excessive competition.
04 Future Opportunities and Challenges
The next phase of competition among the three companies will revolve around capacity expansion, technological breakthroughs, and risk prevention.
Shenghong Technology is technologically advanced in the AI server PCB field and has become a core supplier for leading customers like NVIDIA, with AI computing-related product revenue accounting for over 40% in the first quarter of 2025. At the same time, the company has also made in-depth layouts in the automotive electronics field, being a core supplier of PCBs for BYD’s smart cockpit. With the continuous growth in AI computing demand and the acceleration of automotive intelligence, Shenghong Technology’s AI server PCB and automotive PCB businesses are expected to maintain rapid growth.
In the future, Shenghong Technology’s key lies in “maintaining advantages and expanding capacity.” The company is advancing overseas capacity construction in Vietnam and Thailand and planning to raise funds through a Hong Kong stock listing to enhance R&D, but how to balance high-end capacity supply with order profitability will determine whether its high growth can be sustained.
Pengding Holdings, as the world’s number one PCB company by output value, occupies an important position in the Apple supply chain, exclusively supplying SLP motherboards for iPhones/AI phones. The company is actively expanding into new fields such as AI server PCBs and automotive electronics, with its Thailand base set for small-scale production in the second half of 2025, and AI server PCB deliveries expected to exceed 2 billion yuan in 2025.
In the future, Pengding Holdings’ transformation success will depend on the “speed of new business implementation.” Although it has entered the 800G/1.6T optical module field and is smoothly engaging with AI-related customers, the revenue proportion from consumer electronics business remains high, and whether new field orders can ramp up quickly will be key to breaking through. With the recovery of the consumer electronics market and the gradual ramp-up of new businesses, Pengding Holdings is expected to achieve steady growth in performance.
Shennan Circuit is the domestic leader in packaging substrates, having mass-produced its first FC-BGA substrate, and is a core supplier for Huawei and ZTE in the communication field. With the development of AI technology, the demand for HBM storage is driving growth in the packaging substrate business, and the capacity release of its Guangzhou base will drive the company’s long-term growth. At the same time, the company leads in high-frequency board technology for AI servers, covering cloud computing customers like Google and Amazon, indicating significant development space in high-end PCBs and packaging substrates in the future.
In the future, Shennan Circuit needs to tackle the challenge of “balancing technology mass production and profit margins.” Although high-end products like FC-BGA packaging substrates are technologically advanced, they face fierce international competition, and maintaining profitability during the capacity ramp-up period will test its operational capabilities.
05 Conclusion: The “Guangdong Answer” to the PCB Industry
From Shenghong Technology’s “precise positioning in the wind”, to Pengding Holdings’ “giant transformation challenge”, and Shennan Circuit’s “building defenses with technical barriers”, the development paths of the three major PCB giants in Guangdong reveal the diverse possibilities of upgrading China’s manufacturing industry. Driven by the waves of industries such as AI, automotive electronics, and advanced packaging, this differentiated competition will continue. However, regardless of how the tracks change, technological innovation and strategic foresight remain the core keys for enterprises to navigate through cycles.