AI Chipmaker Enflame Sets September 2 Subscription Date for Near-$900 Million Shanghai IPO
Key Takeaways
- •Enflame Technology, a Tencent-backed Chinese AI chip designer, will open share subscriptions on September 2 for its 6 billion yuan ($892.21 million) IPO on Shanghai's STAR Market.
- •The offering comprises 43.04 million new shares equal to a 10% stake in the enlarged share capital, with preliminary price consultations set to begin on August 28.
- •Enflame is the last of China's "four little GPU dragons"—alongside Moore Threads, MetaX, and Biren Technology—to go public, as the other three listed within the past year.
- •IPO proceeds are earmarked for developing and commercializing fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips as well as advanced software-hardware collaborative innovation projects.
- •The listing coincides with China's strongest year for onshore technology IPOs since 2023 amid a push for tech self-reliance, though Unitree's roughly 45% post-debut share slump has fueled concerns about bubble risk.
SHANGHAI, Aug 25 (Reuters) — Enflame Technology, one of China's leading AI chipmakers, will open share subscriptions on September 2 for its 6 billion yuan ($892.21 million) initial public offering on Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market, according to a regulatory filing published late on Monday.
Related quotes: 0700.HK +0.45% · 688795.SS +0.99% · 688802.SS -1.32% · 6082.HK +2.71%
The company, which counts technology giant Tencent Holdings among its backers, will issue 43.04 million new shares, representing a 10% stake in its enlarged share capital of approximately 430 million shares. Preliminary price consultations are scheduled to begin on August 28, the filing showed.
Within the total offering, 8.61 million shares have been allocated to strategic investors, while 27.54 million shares and 6.89 million shares have been set aside for the institutional and retail tranches, respectively.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Shanghai, Enflame is grouped alongside Moore Threads, MetaX, and Biren Technology as one of China's "four little GPU dragons." The other three companies have all gone public over the past year, riding a wave of global enthusiasm for semiconductor companies, leaving Enflame as the last of the four to list.
Enflame designs AI training and inference accelerators for cloud data centers, and plans to allocate the IPO proceeds to developing and commercializing its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips, as well as to advanced AI software and hardware collaborative innovation projects.
China's onshore technology IPOs are on track for their strongest year since 2023, as Beijing seeks to bolster listings of chip and artificial intelligence companies in a broader push for tech self-reliance amid the country's rivalry with the U.S., whose export controls have restricted Chinese companies' access to Nvidia's most advanced AI chips and added to demand for domestic alternatives.
However, a roughly 45% slump in the shares of Unitree, China's best-known humanoid robot maker, since a more than fivefold jump on its Shanghai debut has triggered concerns about bubble risk and whether enthusiasm for AI and robotics has outpaced fundamentals.
CITIC Securities is acting as lead underwriter for Enflame's deal, with Guotai Haitong Securities and GF Securities serving as joint lead underwriters. The filing did not specify a date for the shares to begin trading.
($1 = 6.7249 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Source: Reuters via Yahoo Finance
