Mango Excellent Media soars 44% amid AI drama frenzy

A Chinese media company just became one of Asia’s hottest stocks this week, and all it took was teaching artificial intelligence to rewrite a 16th-century novel.

Mango Excellent Media (300413.SZ), the state-controlled long-video platform behind one of China’s most-watched satellite channels, surged after premiering Journey to the West: The Later Tale on August 31. The series holds a distinction no other show can claim: it’s China’s first fully AI-generated long-form drama to air during prime time on a mainstream satellite channel.

Two days, two limit-ups

The stock hit its 20% daily limit-up on August 31, closing at 16.98 yuan. It did it again the next day, climbing to approximately 20.38 yuan on September 1. That’s two consecutive days slamming into the ceiling that China’s stock exchanges impose on daily price moves.

The cumulative gain over those 48 hours came in around 44%, adding more than 10 billion yuan to the company’s market capitalization. By the time the dust settled, Mango’s valuation had ballooned to somewhere in the range of 31.8 to 38 billion yuan.

The rally didn’t stay contained to Mango’s ticker, either. Other A-share companies linked to AI and media saw sympathetic buying as traders piled into anything adjacent to the theme.

The show behind the surge

Journey to the West: The Later Tale is built on one of the most recognizable stories in Chinese literature, the classic tale of the Monkey King. The entire series was generated using AI tools, produced under the regulatory framework of the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), the body that oversees broadcast content in China.

Mango has been developing AI content capabilities since at least 2018, building out what it calls its Shanhai AIGC platform among other tools. Years of investment in generative content infrastructure led to this moment, a fully AI-produced drama clearing regulatory hurdles and landing a prime-time slot on satellite television.

The profit problem

There’s a catch, though. And it’s a significant one.

Mango’s first-half 2026 financial results tell a very different story than the stock chart. Operating revenue came in at 6.194 billion yuan, up 3.86% year-over-year. Net profit, however, collapsed. The company reported just 202 million yuan in profit for H1 2026, a 73.58% decline compared to the same period a year earlier.

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