Sinolink: DeepSeek promotes the flourishing development of AI technology, and related chemical new materials are expected to benefit.

Sinolink released a research report stating that from the upstream perspective of the AI industry chain, the basic hardware end involves many related chemical new materials, especially semiconductor-related electronic chemicals such as photoresist, cooling liquids, electronic resins, wet electronics chemicals, and electronic specialty gases. At the application end, with AI represented by DeepSeek, it is expected to quickly integrate with terminal applications such as smartphones and portable devices, thereby driving demand for display materials. Photoresist: According to data and forecasts from the China Business Industry Research Institute, the domestic photoresist market size is expected to grow from 81.4 billion yuan in 2019 to 114.4 billion yuan in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of about 7%. The technology barrier for semiconductor photoresists is high, and there is still a large room for improvement in the localization rate. Cooling liquid: Immersion liquid cooling has moderate costs compared to cold plate and spray liquid cooling, with good performance in space utilization, circulation, and heat dissipation. With the development of AI technology driving the continuous improvement of data center cooling requirements, the demand for cooling liquids is expected to continue to grow. In addition, as 3M plans to stop production of all PFAS products by the end of 2025, domestic cooling liquid companies are expected to seize the opportunity for domestic replacements. Electronic resins: Due to the rapid development of technologies such as 5G communication and artificial intelligence, the demand for data centers and cloud computing is also growing rapidly. The increase in data transmission bandwidth and capacity, driven by the rapid growth in all types of electronic products, significantly increases the requirements for signal transmission rates and transmission losses, leading to a continuous increase in demand for high-frequency high-speed copper-clad laminates. This in turn drives the demand for high-performance electronic resins such as PPO and special epoxy resins. Electronic specialty gases: Electronic specialty gases are essential supporting materials for industries such as integrated circuits and display panels, widely used in processes such as lithography, etching, film formation, cleaning, doping, and deposition. These gases have high requirements for purity, stability, packaging containers, etc. According to data and forecasts from the China Business Industry Research Institute, the global electronic specialty gases market size is expected to grow from $39 billion in 2019 to $60 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of about 9%; the domestic electronic specialty gases market size is expected to grow from 13.34 billion yuan to 26.25 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of about 14%. The domestication rate of electronic gases is about 14% in 2020, and is expected to increase to 25% by 2025. Wet electronic chemicals: Based on the current SEMI international standards, the quality parameters for evaluating wet electronic chemicals mainly include metal impurity content, but wet electronic chemicals used in large-scale and ultra-large-scale integrated circuits need to reach G3, G4, or even higher grades. AI is expected to drive the demand for general wet electronic chemicals involved in the upstream semiconductor production process, such as electronic grade sulfuric acid, electronic grade hydrogen peroxide, electronic grade ammonia, and various etching solutions and functional wet electronic chemicals. Display materials: OLED organic materials can be divided into OLED intermediates, OLED pre-sublimation materials, and OLED terminal materials according to the production process. Among them, terminal materials have high patents and technological barriers. With the popularization of AI technology represented by Deepseek, the application end is expected to quickly integrate with portable devices such as smartphones and smartwatches, indirectly driving demand for upstream OLED materials. Risk warning: Risks of lower-than-expected downstream demand; risks of slower-than-expected popularity of AI; risks of fluctuations in raw material prices; risks of intensified industry competition; risks of slower-than-expected progress in new material research and domestic replacements; risks of slower-than-expected progress in new project and product validation.