Economic Observer reporter Tian Guobao

On July 9th, Daming City (600094. SH) announced that its stock had accumulated a deviation of 20% from the closing price for three consecutive trading days, indicating abnormal fluctuations in stock trading. Daming City confirmed in the announcement that there is no significant information that should have been disclosed but has not been disclosed, and the controlling shareholder does not have any buying or selling of the company's stocks.

On July 7th and 8th, Daming City's stock hit the daily limit up for two consecutive trading days.

A securities industry insider analyzed that the stock fluctuations in Daming City are related to its layout of computing power business. Since the beginning of this year, stocks related to computing power have been widely sought after by the capital market, and in recent years, real estate stock prices have generally been at a low level, making them attractive for investment.

As the adjustment of the real estate industry continues to deepen, most real estate companies are beginning to consider business transformation. Some real estate companies are gradually shifting their business focus to operational business, while others are completely divesting from real estate development business and embracing emerging industries. Many of these real estate companies are beginning to strategically layout their computing power business.

In addition to Daming City, small and medium-sized real estate enterprises such as Dexiang Real Estate (00199. HK), Guangdong Port Intelligent Computing (01396. HK), Electronic City (600658. SH), and Kexin Development (600234. SH) have also taken computing power as a new business direction; Wantong Development and other real estate companies are trying to find new investment opportunities in the upstream and downstream industries related to computing power.

A staff member from the investor relations department of a small and medium-sized real estate enterprise told Economic Observer that since the beginning of this year, the management has been frequently asked the same question in communication with the capital market - whether there are plans to layout computing power business in the future. The other party said that you have idle land and houses, why don't you do it

From selling houses to building computing power

As early as May 2024, Daming City announced the establishment of Fujian Digital Industry Mingshang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mingshang Technology") in collaboration with Fujian Big Data Industry Investment Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fujian Big Data Industry Investment") and Shanghai Shangchou Technology, with Daming City holding a 44% stake. Three parties jointly invested in the construction of a 2000 PFLOPS (FP16) intelligent computing center in Changle, Fujian.

In June 2024, Daming City and Fujian Big Data Industry Investment jointly established Fujian Mingcheng Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mingcheng Digital Technology") as a light asset operation platform for computing power business, with Daming City holding 55% of the shares. In September of that year, Mingcheng Science and Technology signed a 759 million yuan advanced computing service procurement agreement with Mingshang Technology.

Daming City adopts a dual focus model in its computing power business, investing in the construction of a computing power center through the joint venture platform of Mingshang Technology, which is a heavy asset. The operation business is then undertaken by Mingcheng Science and Technology, and the two platforms operate independently.

In November 2024, the first phase of the intelligent computing center completed acceptance and was officially put into operation. According to the financial report of Daming City, its computing power business revenue will be 6.79 million yuan in 2024; In 2025, the revenue from computing power services was 15.34 million yuan, accounting for 0.68% of its total revenue.

Compared with Daming City, Hong Kong based veteran real estate company Dexiang Real Estate (00199. HK) entered the computing power field relatively late. In March 2026, Dexiang Real Estate subscribed for one-third of the equity of an AI computing fund for $2 million, indirectly investing in the UK computing company Nscale.

In May 2026, Dexiang Real Estate appointed Cao Xinwei, who has a background in the computing industry, as the executive director and general manager of its computing subsidiary; On May 19th, Dexiang Real Estate obtained its first artificial intelligence computing power technology service contract, with a basic service period of 6 months and a total amount of approximately 28.9 million yuan including tax. It will deliver 490 PFLOPS computing power services; On the same day, Dexiang Real Estate and Ronglian Technology signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement.

On June 5th, Dexiang Real Estate announced again that its wholly-owned subsidiary signed a memorandum of cooperation with China Unicom (Hong Kong) on June 2nd to promote cooperation in the field of AI computing infrastructure in Hong Kong. According to the memorandum, Dexiang Real Estate plans to lock in a total of 14-16MW of data center resources.

At the end of June to early July, Dexiang Real Estate acquired 20% of PYI's issued share capital for approximately HKD 337 million, indirectly participating in the development of the Green Computing Center in the Rudong Xiaoyangkou area of Nantong, Jiangsu.

Unlike Daming City and Dexiang Real Estate, Guangdong Port Intelligent Computing (01396. HK) has entered the computing power market through mergers and acquisitions. The company, formerly known as Yide International Holdings, mainly engages in commercial logistics and real estate development business; In 2020, it was renamed as Guangdong Port Holdings and shifted its focus to industrial new cities and urban renewal businesses.

In October 2025, Guangdong Port Holdings announced the completion of the acquisition of Wisdom Knight Holdings for a total consideration of HKD 977 million, thereby indirectly controlling Shenzhen Tiandun Data Technology Co., Ltd. In 2025, its computing power revenue will be 617 million yuan, accounting for 61.5% of the total revenue.

In January 2026, Hongyi Smart Computing, a subsidiary of Shenzhen Futian State owned Assets, subscribed for a 40% equity stake in Hongce Data, a computing power subsidiary of Guangdong Port Holdings, for 800 million yuan; In April 2026, it will be officially renamed as Guangdong Port Intelligent Computing; On July 3rd, Guangdong Port Intelligent Computing announced that it will receive long-term computing power orders worth 15 billion yuan in the first half of 2026.

Beijing State owned Electronic City (600658. SH) has chosen the path of equity participation. As early as 2023, Zhiyu Zhilian, a subsidiary of Electronic City, invested 17.5 million yuan in the Beijing Digital Economy Computing Center project, holding a 5% stake. At present, the electronic city has gradually built a four layer computing power system consisting of general, industrial, optoelectronic, and quantum.

In 2024, the sales and operation integration service revenue of Electronic City software reached 362 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.58%, mainly due to the increase in revenue from Zhiyu Zhilian's computing power cloud solution.

Some real estate companies also bypass the computing power center and invest in upstream hardware. In August 2025, Wantong Development (600246. SH) announced the acquisition of 62.98% equity of Shudu Technology for RMB 854 million.

Computing Power Trend

The real estate industry is gradually entering the era of stock, with a significant contraction in development business. Under the industry reshuffle, a large number of enterprises are facing elimination or transformation. Even surviving real estate companies need to cultivate a second growth curve to make up for the gap left by the contraction of development business.

In the stock trading risk warning announcement, Electronic City stated that the industrial park market is in a stage of deep adjustment, and commercial and office products are facing multiple pressures such as large stock, long turnover cycles, and downward prices. Wantong Development stated at the investor briefing that it has not planned any other real estate investment projects based on strategic transformation needs.

The transformation paths of different real estate companies are not exactly the same. Real estate companies such as China Resources Land and Longfor have strong commercial operation capabilities, and their transformation direction is mainly focused on commercial real estate operations; However, most small and medium-sized real estate enterprises lack similar advantages and can only seek opportunities outside of real estate.

For real estate companies that need to transform, computing power business is one of the options. According to IDC data, the scale of intelligent computing in China will reach 1037.3 EFLOPS by 2025, a year-on-year increase of 43%. The Government Work Report of 2026 will for the first time include "computing power collaboration" in new infrastructure projects, making the computing power industry a new trend.

The experience of the personnel in the investor relations department of the real estate company mentioned above is not an isolated case. In the past few months, whether to allocate computing power has become a must-have question for most real estate executives facing the capital market; After receiving a negative answer, some investors may even question why the management is not doing it.

In the eyes of the capital market, real estate companies have a natural advantage in deploying computing power projects, holding idle land and properties, possessing the ability to connect energy consumption indicators and engineering construction experience, as well as an urgent need for transformation. Given the strong demand for computing power in the current market, as long as the computing power center is built and put into operation, it can bring stable income.

More importantly, real estate stocks have been sluggish for a long time, with most stock prices being low; Computing assets are generally considered to have characteristics such as long-term contracts, stable cash flow, and resistance to cycles, and enjoy high valuations.

In April 2025, the valuation enhancement plan disclosed by Daming City clearly stated that it would explore business transformation and actively lay out two major areas: artificial intelligence computing power and low altitude economy. The first phase of the intelligent computing center project has been put into operation, equipped with Nvidia H800 servers, providing 2000P computing power, and stated that it has preliminarily verified the feasibility of commercialization.

In the eyes of the securities industry professionals mentioned above, transitioning to unfamiliar industries is a significant challenge for any enterprise. But compared to other industries, computing power, as a hot industry, is more likely to achieve success. Moreover, compared to real estate business, computing power business is easier to obtain financing. After the 800 million yuan subscription by Shenzhen Futian State owned Assets, Guangdong Port Smart Computing will issue shares at a rate of HKD 6 per share in February 2026, raising a net amount of approximately HKD 122 million; Dexiang Real Estate has issued new shares twice since November 2025, with most of the funds raised invested in AI and computing infrastructure.

There are no shortcuts

The capital market is willing to pay for the story of computing power, but achieving the leap from real estate to computing power is not as easy as imagined.

Compared to real estate development, computing power is a completely different business. From building data centers to purchasing GPUs, to customer acquisition, cluster operation and maintenance, power guarantee, and value-added telecommunications qualifications, every link requires a new capability system. For most real estate companies, this means relearning rather than simply copying experience.

When entering the market in 2024, Daming City hoped to cover both construction and operation, but as the project gradually progressed, it began to adjust its business model. In 2025, Daming City stated on the investor interaction platform that its computing power business will gradually shift from heavy asset construction to light asset operation, with a greater focus on computing power services and operational management.

According to the financial report, as of the end of June 2025, the computing power business of Daming City has recognized revenue of 9.7778 million yuan using the net method, while the operating revenue of the real estate sector during the same period was 1.579 billion yuan. New businesses are still in the cultivation stage.

Behind this adjustment is the continuous process of revising the business model.

Compared to real estate development, computing power centers have larger investment scales, faster equipment updates, and longer recovery cycles. For real estate companies under financial pressure, continuous investment in heavy asset projects is not a long-term solution, and operational services are more in line with the direction of light asset transformation.

Wantong Development initially planned to acquire the optical module company Solskjaer Optoelectronics and terminated the restructuring after nearly a year of promotion. In 2025, the target will be adjusted to PCIe switch chip enterprise Shudu Technology, hoping to enter the computing power industry from the upstream of the industry chain. However, the acquisition announcement indicates that Wantong Development and Shudu Technology will be in a loss making state in 2024, and there is still significant uncertainty in their future integration.

Dexiang Real Estate is also exploring and adjusting its computing power business.

On the one hand, Dexiang Real Estate expands its resource reserves through fund, equity acquisition, and strategic cooperation, and on the other hand, it continues to introduce talents in the data center industry to supplement its operational capabilities. The memorandum of cooperation signed with China Unicom (Hong Kong) also clearly stipulates that except for certain clauses, it does not have legal binding force, and subsequent cooperation still needs to be subject to the formal agreement.

For most real estate companies, the challenge of deploying computing power business is not to build a computing power center, but to have sufficient sustained investment and operational capabilities.

In the relevant announcement, Electronic City admitted that its computing power business is still in its infancy, and the industry has not yet formed a mature operating model. There are still uncertainties in customer acquisition, project operation, and other aspects. United Credit Ratings also believes in the tracking rating report that the transformation effect of the electronic city still needs to be observed.

Over the past two decades, the survival of real estate companies has relied on their abilities in land acquisition, project development, engineering construction, and sales; After entering the computing industry, it is necessary to rebuild the technical, operational, and customer systems. Although land and property can be resources for computing power business, they are not competitive advantages.

A technology company insider told the Economic Observer that while the computing power center project may seem promising on the surface, there are still many risks behind it. The hardware iteration cycle is three to five years, which means that companies need to continue to make large expenditures; Equipment maintenance and depreciation can also put pressure on cash flow.

In his opinion, computing power heavy assets, like other infrastructure, have the characteristics of large investment and long return cycles, and are not suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises to do. Therefore, real estate companies should focus on light asset operations when expanding their computing power business, especially private enterprises should try to avoid investing in heavy assets.

(Author Tian Guobao)