Can the New Unisplendour Group Turn the Tide with AI?

Source | Silicon-Based Quadrant

Founded nearly 40 years ago, the New Unisplendour Group has experienced frenzied mergers and acquisitions, expansion, debt crises, and equity restructuring. Now, it is setting out anew.

The NAVIGATE Summit, originally an annual flagship conference held by New H3C since 2017, was suspended for two years after 2023.

On May 8, 2026, with the reconvening of the "NAVIGATE 2026 Summit," Li Bin, the usually low-profile Chairman of the New Unisplendour Group, made his first appearance at the summit and delivered a 50-minute speech.

"The New Unisplendour Group has repaid over 110 billion yuan in principal and interest. Compared to the 135.5 billion yuan in debt before the restructuring in January 2022, the debt has been reduced by 74.2%." Li Bin's tone lacked a sense of victory; instead, he self-deprecatingly referred to it as "fixing the car while driving," stating that the group would focus on the semiconductor, ICT communication infrastructure, and AI industries in the future.

He introduced that the semiconductor sector would rely on Unisplendour Spreadtrum, Unisplendour Tongxin, Unic Group, Unisplendour Western Digital, and Unisplendour Tongchuang, while the ICT communication infrastructure would depend on New H3C, Unisplendour Corporation, Unisplendour Cloud, Unisplendour Digital, and Unisplendour Software. The new AI layout (layout) would target intelligent computing centers, autonomous driving, and other fields.

This vast "full-range" portfolio covers everything from underlying mobile SoC chips (Unisplendour Spreadtrum) and special chips (Unic Group) to mid-level storage (Unisplendour Storage), switches, and servers (New H3C), and then to the upper-level Unisplendour Cloud. However, these overlap significantly with three of Huawei's six core business lines.

Huawei currently has six core business lines, including ICT infrastructure, terminal, cloud computing, digital energy, intelligent automotive, and chip and component businesses.

In the eyes of the outside world, especially in the ICT infrastructure business, which accounts for over 40% of Huawei's revenue and is the core of the Unisplendour Group's ecosystem, it has long been labeled a "Huawei alternative."

The repayment of 110 billion yuan in principal and interest is more like an "entry ticket" handed over by Li Bin. However, in the future, he will still face the sharp question: Is he content to carve up the remaining cake left by Huawei, or will he grow his own bones?

01 From Frenzied Expansion and Debt Crisis to Restructuring

The history of the Unisplendour Group can be traced back to 1988.

In 1988, Tsinghua University established the "Tsinghua University Science and Technology Development Corporation," the original predecessor of the Unisplendour Group. At that time, Tsinghua University leveraged its research strength in electronic engineering, computer science, and information technology to establish this technology industry platform.

Subsequently, the company underwent multiple restructurings: In 1993, the "Tsinghua Unisplendour" brand was officially launched; around 2000, it became an important technology enterprise under the Tsinghua Holdings system; in 2005, the company was officially renamed "Unisplendour Group Corporation Limited."

Tsinghua Holdings has long been the largest shareholder. The Unisplendour Group's early business mainly focused on IT distribution, information systems, computer equipment, and software services. However, these businesses had low moats and low gross margins.

The real turning point for the Unisplendour Group came in 2010.

In 2010, the Unisplendour Group entered a phase of rapid expansion. It began using financing and high leverage to acquire domestic and foreign companies, engaging in frenzied mergers and acquisitions and investments.

In 2013, the Unisplendour Group acquired Spreadtrum Communications, an important Chinese mobile communication chip manufacturer with strong capabilities in 2G and 3G baseband chips. Subsequently, Unisplendour also acquired RDA Microelectronics.

The two companies were later integrated into "Unisplendour Spreadtrum."

In 2015, the Unisplendour Group, through its listed subsidiary Unisplendour Corporation, acquired a 51% stake in New H3C from Hewlett-Packard. New H3C has core businesses in enterprise-grade servers, network switches, data centers, and cloud computing, and has long been Huawei's "shadow rival."

In 2018, the Unisplendour Group acquired the French chip company Linxens and even made acquisition offers for Micron Technology and expressed interest in equity investments in Western Digital, but these ultimately failed.

The decade of frenzied expansion by Unisplendour also built a towering debt wall.

From 2013 to 2020, the Unisplendour Group's merger and acquisition funds heavily relied on bank loans and bonds, with long investment return cycles, persistent losses in some chip projects, financial pressure from failed overseas mergers and acquisitions, and lower-than-expected industrial integration efficiency.

In November 2020, the Unisplendour Group defaulted on its bonds, and a full-blown liquidity crisis erupted.

In 2021, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court accepted the restructuring case of the Unisplendour Group.

Key milestones in this phase included: In July 2021, the court officially ruled to accept the restructuring of the Unisplendour Group; in December 2021, a consortium of Zhilu Capital and Jian Guang Asset Management became the strategic restructuring investor; in January 2022, the court approved the restructuring plan. By July 2022, the restructuring was largely completed. Tsinghua Holdings and Jiankun Group fully exited, and the newly established "Zhiguangxin Holdings" became the controlling shareholder of the Unisplendour Group, with Li Bin appointed as chairman.

In 2024, the group was officially renamed the "New Unisplendour Group."

After the establishment of the New Unisplendour Group, Li Bin continued to repurchase shares in New H3C. In November 2025, Unisplendour Corporation, the controlling shareholder of New H3C, issued two announcements, the core content of which was that HPE would sell its remaining 19% stake in New H3C. After the transaction, Unisplendour Corporation's shareholding increased to 87.98%.

Currently, New H3C has become the most profitable and cash-flow-stable business segment within the Unisplendour ecosystem.

This also destined (doomed) the New Unisplendour Group to be inextricably linked to competition with Huawei.

02 New H3C: The "Engine"

The New Unisplendour Group has nearly 200 companies under its umbrella, with two listed companies, Unisplendour Corporation and Unic Group, and one company, Unisplendour Spreadtrum, currently undergoing an IPO.

Unisplendour Corporation is not a single-business company; in addition to its subsidiary New H3C (H3C), it also includes Unisplendour Digital, Unisplendour Software, and Unisplendour Cloud.

In 2025, Unisplendour Corporation's revenue was 96.7 billion yuan, Unic Group's was 6.1 billion yuan, and Unisplendour Spreadtrum's annual revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan.

From publicly available data, it can be inferred that Unisplendour Corporation accounts for a significant portion of the New Unisplendour Group's revenue, and New H3C is the mainstay supporting Unisplendour Corporation's revenue.

New H3C's revenue within Unisplendour Corporation was 75.981 billion yuan, highlighting its importance within the Unisplendour ecosystem.

Among Unisplendour Corporation's three core businesses, the absolute core is ICT infrastructure and services, accounting for 79.43% of total revenue, making it the dominant force. This segment covers network equipment (switches, routers, WLAN), servers and storage, cloud computing and data centers, and security products and solutions, serving government and enterprise, operators, and internet clients, which are New H3C's main businesses.

The second segment is ICT distribution and channel business, an important historical business for Unisplendour Corporation, mainly relying on Unisplendour Digital. This business has a large scale and fast turnover but low profit margins, which is a significant reason for Unisplendour Corporation's consistently low gross margins.

The third segment is cloud and digital solutions, with Unisplendour Software responsible for industry solutions and Unisplendour Cloud responsible for the cloud computing platform.

Unisplendour Corporation has become a listed platform "driven by New H3C." The businesses of other Unisplendour subsidiaries are dragging down the overall profit margin.

In 2025, New H3C achieved a net profit of 3.151 billion yuan, but Unisplendour Corporation's net profit attributable to shareholders was only 1.686 billion yuan.

With revenue approaching 100 billion yuan, profits remain stuck at the "billion-yuan" level. The "distribution-oriented genes" are hard to change, as the company still has a large amount of channel business and hardware trade, which are inherently low-margin.

This also exposes the core issue of Unisplendour Corporation: its business coverage is broad, but its core growth is highly concentrated.

Looking at the New Unisplendour Group as a whole, the problem persists. On the one hand, the AI computing power wave has driven its revenue to new heights; on the other hand, its profitability remains under pressure, and structural issues in its business model are beginning to surface.

03 Streamlining While Expanding the Boundaries of Intelligent Computing

The rapid development of the global AI industry has led to a surge in demand for computing power infrastructure, driving the construction of AI servers, data centers, network switching equipment, storage systems, and intelligent computing centers.

This presents an opportunity for the New Unisplendour Group.

Switches, WLAN, routers, servers, and security equipment, collectively known as ICT infrastructure, are New H3C's main businesses and also account for over 40% of Huawei's six core businesses.

In enterprise-grade switches, routers, and other businesses, it competes with Huawei and Ruijie, with Huawei consistently occupying the leading position; in servers, it competes with Inspur Information and Sugon, with Inspur ranking first with approximately 28% market share and Sugon holding about 14%.

According to Unisplendour Corporation's financial report data, in 2025, New H3C ranked first in the Chinese enterprise network switch market with a 36.1% share; second in the Chinese Ethernet switch market with a 34.5% share; second in the Chinese enterprise network campus switch market with a 36.2% share; second in the Chinese data center switch market with a 33.1% share; second in the Chinese enterprise network router market with a 31.5% share; first in the Chinese enterprise-grade WLAN market with a 27.9% share; third in the Chinese X86 server market with a 12.5% share; and third in the Chinese UTM firewall market with a 21.1% share.

In 2025, the development of government digitization, industry cloud adoption, and AI+ scenario implementations drove a 48.84% increase in New H3C's government and enterprise business revenue.

In addition, New H3C is replicating a "Huawei-style path" by developing markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Its overseas growth rate has been significantly faster than domestic growth, reaching 58.45% in 2025.

In cloud services, Huawei Cloud has firmly established itself among the top three domestic cloud service providers. In contrast, Unisplendour Cloud started later and holds an overall market share of less than 2%, not on the same scale as Huawei Cloud. However, Unisplendour Cloud is betting on "industrial clouds" and ranks second only to Huawei and Inspur in the government cloud segment.

In the terminal chip business, Unisplendour Spreadtrum competes with Huawei Hisilicon in areas such as automotive chips, but Huawei remains far ahead.

Under Li Bin's leadership, the New Unisplendour Group is streamlining its operations by divesting from non-technology sectors such as banking, insurance, real estate, and education while expanding into emerging businesses like storage and computing power to differentiate itself from Huawei in the intelligent era.

In February and July 2025, New H3C successively established Computing Power Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and New H3C Storage Technology (Guangdong) Co., Ltd.

At the conference, Li Bin announced new businesses such as the S80000 super node, the end-side AI platform N9 series, and the "Zixian" three-dimensional near-memory architecture.

The "Zixian Architecture" released by the New Unisplendour Group focuses on solving the integration of storage and computing, differing from Huawei's traditional computing path. The New Unisplendour Group attempts to establish its own voice by addressing the specific pain point of the "storage wall," an area where Huawei currently has limited reach.

Furthermore, Huawei primarily focuses on chip design and integration and does not directly engage in storage chip manufacturing, while the New Unisplendour Group possesses a complete storage asset chain (Unisplendour Flash Chip, Xi'an Guoxin). This deep vertical integration from "sand to system" is an area that Huawei currently finds difficult to penetrate.

Additionally, due to its scale and complex international situation, Huawei's ecosystem is relatively monopolistic. The New Unisplendour Group, on the other hand, presents itself as more neutral and is better positioned to establish joint solutions with global ecosystem players like Intel and NVIDIA.

The industry generally believes that Huawei follows a "fully self-developed, closed-loop ecosystem" approach, while New H3C adopts a more compatible "open platform + partial autonomy" strategy.

However, is "neutrality" a safe haven or an awkward middle ground?

Li Bin needs to address the issue of the New Unisplendour Group's low profit margins. On the one hand, its "distribution genes" will drag down the group's overall profitability, requiring core businesses to continuously support traditional operations. On the other hand, adopting a non-fully self-developed approach for switches and servers will cede a portion of profits to "core component suppliers" and reduce pricing power.

It is foreseeable that while the New Unisplendour Group has reached the shore, the real battle is just beginning to intensify.