BOE Technology is on investors’ radar screens again after announcing its foray into a business linked to artificial intelligence infrastructure, causing the stock price of the Chinese maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) to rally following years of listlessness.

Yuan-denominated shares of the world’s biggest LCD maker have surged more than 30 per cent in Shenzhen over the past week after the company said last week that it would partner with Corning, the US manufacturer of optical fibres and cables, in the fields of glass-substrate packaging, optical interconnects and foldable glass.

Investor reaction was so enthusiastic that BOE had to quickly issue a clarification to downplay the effects of the business collaboration on short-term earnings. That followed its shares surging by 10 per cent on two consecutive days last week, the maximum daily swing allowed by the Shenzhen exchange.

BOE’s sudden jump shows how AI can lift an old-economy company almost forgotten by investors and thrust it back into the limelight. The company fits well into the evolving narrative of the AI business, where traders are shifting to companies that stand to benefit from the AI infrastructure buildout, ranging from optical fibres to memory chips and printed circuit boards.

“BOE is riding on the wave of the AI infrastructure buildout, as the market is identifying the relevant companies whose shares haven’t soared much,” said Wang Chen, a partner at Xufunds Investment Management in Shanghai. “Its cooperation with Corning is a catalyst for the business that would fuel more upside room for the stock. But it remains to be seen whether the new business will turn into a driver for growth.”

BOE was founded by entrepreneur Wang Dongsheng in 1993 and started from a struggling vacuum tube factory in Beijing. It acquired the display business of South Korea’s Hyundai in 2003, a critical decision that eventually helped it achieve its current stature. But with growth of the flat-panel business stalling in recent years, BOE has shed nearly 60 per cent of its value since its peak in 2008. Wang left BOE in 2019 to start a new semiconductor maker.

The stock fell 0.9 per cent to close at 5.72 yuan on Wednesday, snapping a four-day, 35 per cent gain.