Companies / Biren
GPU maker
Biren
State of play as of
The Shanghai GPU designer that lost its foundry to a US blacklist, rebuilt on domestic silicon, and became the first mainland GPU maker to list in Hong Kong.
Biren is the clearest test of whether a Chinese chip designer can survive being cut off. It was added to the US Entity List in October 2023, which took away its access to TSMC’s leading-edge process and forced it to redesign its parts for SMIC. Two years later it went public in Hong Kong to a retail book oversubscribed more than two thousand times, the first new listing anywhere in 2026. Both halves of that are true at once, and the gap between them is the page. We track what Biren ships, what it has actually disclosed, and where the demand for its stock runs ahead of the volume it sells, with dates and sources.
Fast facts
- Founded
- September 2019, Shanghai.
- Founder & CEO
- Zhang Wen, formerly president of SenseTime.SCMP, company filings
- Public listing
- Listed on the Hong Kong exchange on 2 January 2026, the first mainland GPU developer to go public there and the first new listing anywhere in 2026.HKEX filing, Bloomberg
- IPO terms
- Raised HK$5.58 billion (about $717 million) from 284.8 million H shares at HK$19.60, the top of the marketed range. The retail tranche was oversubscribed about 2,348 times; institutional demand was close to 26 times.HKEX filing, SCMP, Bloomberg
- Debut
- Closed the first day at HK$34.46, up about 76 percent, after touching HK$42.88 intraday. The best first-day showing since early 2021 among Hong Kong listings raising at least $700 million.Bloomberg, SCMP, RTHK
- Products
- The BR100 general-purpose GPU, launched in August 2022, and the cut-down BR104. Biren rated the BR100 above 1,000 TFLOPS at 16-bit float and above 2,000 TOPS at 8-bit integer. Those are the company’s own figures.Company launch materials, HPCwire
- US status
- Shanghai Biren and several subsidiaries were added to the US Entity List in October 2023 for work on advanced computing chips, which carries a presumption of denial for US-origin technology. The practical cost was access to TSMC’s leading-edge process; the BR104 was reported to have been redesigned for SMIC’s 7nm-class line.US Bureau of Industry and Security, Federal Register, Tom’s Hardware
- Deployment
- BR100 and BR104 parts are reported in intelligent-computing centers run by China Mobile, ZTE and the Shanghai AI Laboratory. Biren has not disclosed unit volumes.Tom’s Hardware, trade press
The state of play
Biren listed in Hong Kong on 2 January 2026, raising HK$5.58 billion (about $717 million) by selling 284.8 million H shares at HK$19.60, the top of the marketed range. The book was extraordinary: the retail tranche was oversubscribed roughly 2,348 times and institutional demand ran close to 26 times the shares on offer. The stock closed its first session at HK$34.46, up about 76 percent, after reaching HK$42.88 intraday, the strongest Hong Kong debut since early 2021 among listings raising at least $700 million. It was the first mainland GPU developer to go public in Hong Kong and the first new listing anywhere in 2026. The caution that belongs beside those numbers is that a book bid two thousand times over is a statement about scarcity, not about shipments: Biren has never disclosed unit volumes, and it went public two years after losing access to TSMC.
Six days after Biren, Iluvatar CoreX listed in Hong Kong on effectively the same story, and the two sessions diverged. Biren opened at HK$35.70, about 82 percent above its offer price, and held nearly all of it to close about 76 percent up. Iluvatar opened about 31 percent up and closed about 8 percent up, giving back roughly three-quarters of its pop inside the day, on a reported 414 times oversubscription against Biren’s 2,348. Two domestic GPU listings a week apart behaving that differently is the first evidence the market was pricing these companies separately rather than buying the category. Read against Moore Threads in December 2025 and MetaX days later, Biren sits at the top of a demand curve that was already cooling by the second week of January.
Biren has operated under US Entity List restrictions since October 2023, when the Bureau of Industry and Security added Shanghai Biren and a set of subsidiaries over their work on advanced computing chips. The designation carries a presumption of denial for US-origin technology, and its concrete effect was the loss of TSMC’s leading-edge process: reporting indicates Biren redesigned the BR104 for SMIC’s 7nm-class line. Whether a part built on that line performs like the TSMC version has not been independently established, and Biren has not published a comparison. This is the unresolved question underneath the listing, and the company’s prospectus is the first place it has had to answer to public investors.
Common questions
When did Biren go public?
Biren listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 2 January 2026, the first new listing anywhere that year and the first mainland GPU developer to go public in Hong Kong. It raised HK$5.58 billion, about $717 million, from 284.8 million H shares priced at HK$19.60, the top of the marketed range.
How oversubscribed was the Biren IPO?
The retail tranche was oversubscribed about 2,348 times and institutional demand was close to 26 times the shares on offer, per SCMP and Bloomberg. The stock closed its first day at HK$34.46, up about 76 percent from the HK$19.60 offer price, after touching HK$42.88 intraday.
Is Biren on the US Entity List?
Yes. The US Bureau of Industry and Security added Shanghai Biren Technology and several subsidiaries to the Entity List in October 2023 over their involvement in developing advanced computing integrated circuits. The listing carries a presumption of denial for US-origin technology. Its practical effect was to cut Biren off from TSMC’s leading-edge manufacturing, and reporting indicates the BR104 was redesigned for SMIC’s 7nm-class process.
What is the Biren BR100?
The BR100 is Biren’s first general-purpose GPU, launched in August 2022. Biren rated it above 1,000 TFLOPS at 16-bit floating point and above 2,000 TOPS at 8-bit integer, figures the company published itself and which have not been independently benchmarked in public. A cut-down variant, the BR104, followed. Both are reported in use at intelligent-computing centers run by China Mobile, ZTE and the Shanghai AI Laboratory.
Who are Biren’s domestic competitors?
Three other general-purpose GPU startups of the same generation reached public markets within a month of each other: Moore Threads and MetaX on Shanghai’s STAR Market in December 2025, and Iluvatar CoreX in Hong Kong on 8 January 2026, six days after Biren. Above them sit Huawei’s Ascend line, which has the volume none of the startups has, and Cambricon, which is profitable and further along commercially. Enflame, cleared to list on the STAR Market, builds AI accelerator cards rather than general-purpose GPUs and competes for a narrower set of workloads.
Every dated fact above traces to a named source, and where it comes from our reporting, to the dated issue that carried it. Where a claim is self-reported or disputed, we say so.