[News] Alibaba Chip Unit T-Head Reportedly Eyes Spinoff & IPO; AI Chip Said Comparable to NVIDIA H20

China’s AI chip sector could be approaching another high-profile listing. According to Bloomberg, sources say Alibaba is preparing to take its chipmaking arm, T-Head, public. As an initial move, Alibaba is said to be restructuring the unit into a business partly owned by employees, before exploring a potential IPO, though the timing remains unclear.

The report adds that the process is still at an early stage, and it remains uncertain what valuation T-Head might ultimately achieve.

T-Head’s Chip Lineup; PPU Reportedly Comparable to NVIDIA’s H20

Founded by Alibaba in September 2018, T-Head focuses on developing chips for both computing and storage, Bloomberg states.

In computing, the company has rolled out products including the Hanguang 800 AI inference chip, the Yitian 710 CPU, and the PPU AI chip, according to Mydrivers. The report also notes that in storage, T-Head has launched the Zhenyue 510 SSD controller, while in edge-side chips it has introduced the Yuzhen IoT chip, which has already shipped hundreds of millions of units, with deployments spanning both cloud and edge endpoints.

Among its lineup, the PPU has drawn particular attention. As noted by South China Morning Post, in September 2025 China’s state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported that T-Head had developed an AI chip whose capabilities were described as comparable to NVIDIA’s H20 GPU.

EE Times China adds that CCTV footage showed PPU equipped with 96 GB of HBM2e, up to 700 GB/s chip-to-chip bandwidth, a PCIe 5.0 ×16 interface, and 400 W power consumption. Based on the disclosed specifications, EE Times China notes that the PPU appears to exceed NVIDIA’s A800 and many mainstream domestic Chinese GPUs, while remaining broadly comparable to the H20. Still, Economic Daily News points out that the H20 adopts newer-generation HBM3.

Alibaba, Baidu, and the Broader IPO Push in AI Chips

Notably, as Mydrivers indicates, ahead of speculation over an independent IPO by T-Head, Baidu’s AI chip subsidiary Kunlunxin submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 1 through its joint sponsors.

The moves by Alibaba and Baidu also reflect broader IPO momentum in China’s AI chip sector. According to Star Market Daily, China’s domestic GPU firms MetaX and Moore Threads listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market in December 2025. Biren Technology and Iluvatar CoreX have instead opted to pursue listings in Hong Kong, similar to Kunlunxin. Meanwhile, Enflame’s STAR Market IPO application was also accepted on January 22, the report notes.

Read more

• [News] Alibaba T-Head PPU Lands China Unicom Deal, Reportedly Matches NVIDIA H20 Performance
• [News] China AI Chipmakers Step Up Hong Kong IPO with Baidu Kunlunxin Filing, Biren HK$5.58B Listing

(Photo credit: T-head)