[News] China’s GPU IPO Wave Intensifies: MetaX Surpasses Moore Threads in Retail Investor Interest

China’s AI chip IPO boom is accelerating, and MetaX is stepping into the spotlight. According to South China Morning Post, Shanghai-based MetaX Integrated Circuits has become the newest standout in China’s stock market, attracting even more retail investor interest than fellow chip maker Moore Threads ahead of its debut.

The report highlights that MetaX garnered 5.17 million retail investors through its online subscription, yielding a final allotment rate of 0.033 per cent, according to a Monday filing. Meanwhile, Moore Threads attracted 4.82 million retail investors ahead of its Friday debut, with a final allotment rate of 0.036 per cent—meaning MetaX’s retail allotment rate was even lower. As the report explains, on the Star Market, institutional investors receive proportional allocations, while retail investors subscribe through a lottery-style system.

MetaX’s Emerging Role in China’s AI Chip Race

Seen as one of China’s leading candidates to challenge NVIDIA’s high-performance AI chips, MetaX is seeking to raise 4.2 billion yuan (US$594 million) from its IPO. Its offer price of 104.66 yuan per share implies a valuation of roughly 41.9 billion yuan, as the report indicates.

The report further points to MetaX’s C600—introduced in July—which features HBM3e and FP8 precision to accelerate AI training while lowering power consumption. Mass production of the “fully domestically produced” chip is expected in the first half of 2026.

MetaX’s chip development rests on a team established in September 2020 and composed primarily of former AMD engineers. As noted by 21jingji, the firm introduced its N100 inference chip in April 2023 and its C500 training-and-inference chip in February 2024. The C500 is now its main commercially shipped product.

MetaX Faces Ongoing Losses Amid Heavy R&D Spending

Meanwhile, as the South China Morning Post indicates, MetaX remains loss-making due to high research and development costs and NVIDIA’s long-standing dominance in the Chinese market. According to the report, the company posted a net loss of 1.4 billion yuan in 2024, even as revenue surged more than tenfold to 743.1 million yuan. In the first nine months of 2025, it recorded a loss of 345.5 million yuan while revenue rose more than 400 per cent from a year earlier. The company previously said it expects to break even in 2026 at the earliest.

Read more

• [News] China’s GPU Trio Rise as NVIDIA Retreats — Decoding Moore Threads, MetaX, and Cambricon
• [News] Baidu Reportedly Explores Kunlunxin Spinoff and Listing Amid a Surge in China Chip IPOs

(Photo credit: MetaX)