China’s corporate sector remains considerably weaker than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the country is emerging as a key beneficiary of the global artificial intelligence boom thanks to its ample power capacity, according to a Natixis survey of thousands of firms and a separate research report.
Profit margins at Chinese firms had stabilised at about 4.5 per cent for the first half of 2026, but remained well below the nearly 9 per cent recorded by their global peers, according to the French bank’s latest China corporate monitor presented on Tuesday.
Returns on capital at Chinese firms hovered at around 6 per cent in the same period, compared with more than 11 per cent globally, the report said. The findings were based on a comparison of about 2,300 Chinese firms and 9,000 overseas counterparts.
