Chinese chipmakers race to IPO after back-to-back listings surge

[SHANGHAI] Chinese chipmakers are rushing to the initial public offering (IPO) market, raising funds that are key to the nation’s goal of technological self-reliance and winning the global race on artificial intelligence (AI).

The surge in listings is coming on the back of two blockbuster trading debuts in Shanghai that signalled insatiable demand for future national champions that analysts say could one day even rival the likes of Nvidia.

While some of these firms are already domestic industry leaders, they remain an obscurity to many international investors, making their share sales in Hong Kong a crucial test of confidence.

“China is catching up very quickly in the chip war. It wouldn’t surprise me if in 2026 or 2027 we have a DeepSeek moment for chips where a low-cost, competitive chip is being produced by China,” said Matt Toms, head of cash equity execution for Asia-Pacific at Barclays. “This would be disruptive for Nvidia and their supply chain.”

Here is a list of Chinese AI chip firms seeking stock listings:

Biren Technology

Founded in 2019, Shanghai Biren Technology focuses on areas such as graphics processing units and cloud computing, and is considered one of the most promising domestic contenders to Nvidia.

Biren filed its listing documents with Hong Kong’s stock exchange earlier this month, after receiving the Chinese securities regulator’s approval to issue up to 372.5 million new shares there. The AI chipmaker is slated to start gauging investor interest this month for an initial public offering worth around US$600 million.

Biren was added to Washington’s so-called entity list in 2023, which prohibits the sale of US technology without a special license.

Kunlunxin

Also in the pipeline is Internet giant Baidu’s AI chip division, known as Kunlunxin, which is considering a listing in Hong Kong.

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Kunlunxin, which makes chips that power servers in data centres, is valued at least US$3 billion. It was created in part to sate Baidu’s enormous appetite for computing power to run its online businesses.

Iluvatar CoreX

Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor is another potential Chinese competitor for Nvidia. The Centurium Capital-backed firm has also filed listing documents to seek a Hong Kong listing.  

The firm is considering an IPO that could raise US$300 million to US$400 million, Bloomberg News reported in August.

Founded in 2015, the company raised 1.2 billion yuan (S$220 million) in a funding round in 2021 led by Centurium and Cedarlake Capital. Another round in 2022 included Beijing Financial Street Capital and Hopu and raised one billion yuan.

Enflame Technology

Shanghai Enflame Technology, which is seeking an onshore IPO, was founded by former Advanced Micro Devices employees in 2018. The company is backed by Tencent Holdings and others, including China’s state semiconductor fund.

Bloomberg News reported last year that Enflame was aiming to raise as much as two billion yuan in an IPO on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star board, choosing a venue friendly to loss-making but fast-growth startups.

GigaDevice

GigaDevice Semiconductor specialises in memory chips and micro-controllers that are widely used in consumer electronics as well as industrial and automotive applications.

Already listed in Shanghai, the chip designer aims to raise as much as US$1 billion in a secondary listing in Hong Kong as early as January.

Montage

Montage Technology focuses on memory interface chips, particularly for data centre servers. Similar to GigaDevice, the Shanghai-listed firm is also seeking a secondary listing in Hong Kong to raise as much as US$1 billion as early as January.

Montage’s onshore stock trades at around 44 times forward earnings, below the Star board’s 51 times and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation’s 126 times.

ChangXin Memory

ChangXin Memory Technologies is China’s leading maker of memory chips. The Hefei-based firm recently said that it’s begun to mass-produce an advanced type of chip for mobile devices such as smartphones, becoming the country’s first company to compete in a field dominated by foreign players such as Samsung Electronics.

The company is mulling an onshore IPO that would value it as high as 300 billion yuan.

Yangtze Memory

Yangtze Memory Technologies is considering an IPO in mainland China at a valuation that could exceed US$40 billion.

Established in Wuhan in 2016, the company focuses on the design and manufacturing of 3D Nand flash memory and is an advanced memory solutions provider. BLOOMBERG