[News] China’s GPU Drive Gains Steam as Moore Threads, MetaX Clear STAR Market IPOs

According to Anue, Chinese GPU unicorns Moore Threads and MetaX had their STAR Market IPO applications accepted on Monday, June 30. Moore Threads plans to raise RMB 8 billion. MetaX aims to raise RMB 3.904 billion, with a total investment of RMB 5 billion. As noted by Economic Daily News, this move may be intended to meet surging demand for GPUs and AI chips and to fill the market gap left by NVIDIA in China amid U.S. export restrictions.

Notably, both Moore Threads and MetaX identified U.S. sanctions as a key risk to their growth, but also emphasized that such restrictions could create significant market opportunities, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Anue notes that while both companies are growing rapidly, they face the challenge of heavy R&D spending driving financial losses. Between 2022 and 2024, Moore Threads invested RMB 3.8 billion in R&D—equivalent to 626.03% of its revenue—while MetaX spent RMB 2.2 billion during that period, or 282.11% of its revenue.

GPU Unicorns Uncovered: Key Backgrounds 

In addition, Reuters notes that both companies were founded by former executives from major U.S. semiconductor firms. MetaX was launched by ex-AMD personnel, including Chairman Chen Weiliang, who previously served as AMD’s global head of GPU product line design. Moore Threads was established by former NVIDIA staff, including Chairman Zhang Jianzhong, who formerly led NVIDIA’s China operations as general manager.

As Anue reports, Moore Threads was founded on June 11, 2020, and independently developed the MUSA architecture. The company has since launched four generations of GPUs. Its pre-IPO valuation reached RMB 24.62 billion, with 86 shareholders. The report also notes that Moore Threads is frequently compared to Cambricon, which currently has a market capitalization of over RMB 230 billion, having once peaked above RMB 340 billion.

Founded on September 14, 2020, MetaX focuses on end-to-end GPU chips and solutions for heterogeneous computing. According to Anue, the company has supported full pre-training of large models such as the 128B MoE, has sold over 25,000 GPUs, and is one of the few players in China to achieve large-scale deployment of thousand-card clusters—with ten-thousand-card systems currently under development.

As Anue highlights, China’s wave of domestic GPU IPOs is accelerating. Biren Technology has completed its latest funding round and is expected to file for an IPO with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as August.

Read more

• [News] Jensen Huang: NVIDIA’s China Market Share Plummets from 95% to 50% amid U.S. Export Curbs
• [News] China’s GPU Unicorn Moore Threads Reportedly Completes IPO Guidance, Edging Closer to Market Debut

(Photo credit: Moore Threads)