AI Drives China's 65% Surge in Lab Grown Exports

(IDEX Online) - China's lab-grown diamond exports jumped 65.3% in the first half of 2026, driven in part by rising overseas demand for synthetic stones used to cool high-performance AI chips, official trade data show.

The value of lab-grown diamond exports cleared through the Shanghai Diamond Exchange (SDE) reached 1.41 billion yuan (about $210 million) in the January-June period, according to Shanghai Customs.

Because the SDE is mainland China's only general-trade platform for diamond imports and exports, its statistics are widely treated as capturing virtually all of the country's formal diamond export activity.

The export surge comes as synthetic diamonds are increasingly deployed as heat spreaders and substrates in advanced semiconductors, where their exceptional thermal conductivity, roughly five times that of copper, helps manage the extreme heat generated by next-generation AI processors.

In February, the US tech giant Nvidia announced its next-generation GPU chips would adopt a "diamond composite material plus liquid cooling" thermal solution, a move that helped catalyze investor interest and accelerated orders across the supply chain.

Despite the rapid growth in AI-related demand, about 80% of global lab-grown diamond production, both worldwide and from China, is still used for jewelry, with engagement rings and other fine jewelry accounting for the bulk of consumption.

The remaining share goes to industrial applications, including cutting tools, optics and, increasingly, thermal management for chips.

China already dominates global production of lab-grown diamonds, accounting for roughly 60-70% of gem-quality lab-grown rough by volume, according to industry and association data, and an even larger share of industrial-grade synthetic diamonds.

The latest Shanghai data underscore that dynamic. While the 1.41 billion yuan in first-half exports includes stones for both jewelry and industry, analysts say the acceleration in growth rates reflects the emergence of AI-related industrial demand as a second, high-growth lane alongside a still-dominant jewelry market.

Pic shows Shanghai Diamond Exchange (SDE).