Trackers / IPO Watch
China AI Chip IPO Watch
A maintained record of where every Chinese AI chip listing actually stands: filed, cleared, or trading. Every figure is one somebody else filed or reported, with the source and the date attached, and where those figures conflict, our reading of which one to believe.
Rows last verified: 23 August 2026 · Most recent event: 27 July 2026 · 9 listings tracked
Between December 2025 and August 2026, China's AI chip industry went public. Four general-purpose GPU startups, a DRAM maker and a Tencent-backed accelerator designer either listed or cleared the last gate to list, and Baidu's chip arm filed to follow them. The listings themselves were extraordinary: first-day gains of several hundred percent were routine, and one retail tranche was oversubscribed more than two thousand times.
That combination, a strategically vital sector and an unusually excited market, is exactly the situation in which numbers get repeated until they harden into facts. Reported valuations for one company on this page moved roughly seventeen-fold in seven months, and were widely quoted at each level. So this tracker records the state of each listing and the provenance of each figure, and keeps superseded numbers visible with their dates rather than quietly replacing them. Where those figures genuinely conflict, a spread on its own tells a reader nothing, so we add a second column saying which one we find credible and why.
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How to read a status
Coverage of Chinese chip listings routinely blurs "reported", "filed" and "listed". They are different things with different evidence behind them, so every row says which one it is.
- Listed
- Shares are trading.
- Cleared to list
- Regulatory clearance is in hand; the debut has not happened yet.
- Filed
- An application is with the exchange. Confidential filings are not public documents.
- Pre-filing guidance
- The company is in the pre-filing tutoring stage that a mainland listing requires. No application yet.
The listing pipeline
Newest event first. A company running a dual track appears once per venue, because the two tracks move independently and either can stall.
CXMT长鑫存储
China’s largest domestic DRAM maker, listed through its parent ChangXin Technology. The largest mainland semiconductor listing on record.
- Debut
- ReportedPriced at 8.66 yuan, opened at 49.50, up about 471 percent, and reached 54.65 by the midday break, up 531 percent, valuing the company near 3.66 trillion yuan (roughly $500 billion).TechNode, TMTPost, TrendForce ·
- CAD view our readingA debut-day peak, not a standing valuation. Good for 27 Jul 2026 and no later.The roughly $500 billion figure is a midday reading at the top of a 531 percent first-day move, and it is now quoted as though it were CXMT’s size, which is a different claim: this tracker carries no share prices, so for what the company is worth today, look it up rather than reusing this number.
- Raise
- About 57.9 billion yuan (roughly $8.55 billion), rising to about 66.6 billion if the over-allotment is exercised. Asia’s largest IPO of 2026 and the largest STAR Market listing on record, ahead of SMIC’s 53.2 billion yuan in 2020.TechNode, Caixin ·
- Retail demand
- 9,428,800 households subscribed, a 0.4714 percent win-rate, a STAR Market record and about 15 times the year’s average.Reuters, 财经 (Caijing) ·
The debut priced sovereignty rather than earnings, and the gap between the two is the thing to watch. CXMT sells no high-bandwidth memory as a product while Korean rivals ship HBM3E and have moved to HBM4, and its turnaround rests on a DRAM price spike that has reversed every prior cycle. Whether the HBM programme reaches volume before that spike unwinds decides which of those two facts ends up mattering.
Enflame燧原科技
The Tencent-backed AI accelerator designer, through the last regulatory gate and awaiting a debut date.
- Registration effective
- The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the STAR Market registration, the final gate before a debut. The listing committee cleared it on 15 June 2026 and the application was accepted on 22 January 2026.Caixin, CSRC ·
- Planned raise
- About 6 billion yuan (about $883 million per Caixin), earmarked for fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips and hardware and software integration.Caixin, prospectus ·
- Customer concentration
- Tencent and affiliates hold about 20.3 percent and accounted for about 83.8 percent of 2025 revenue. Enflame reported a 1.2 billion yuan loss on about 990 million yuan of 2025 revenue.Caixin, prospectus ·
The filings make the risk unusually explicit: the largest shareholder is also nearly all of the revenue. A listing does not change that, so the number worth watching after the debut is not the share price but the share of revenue that comes from somewhere other than Tencent. Enflame is also the one company in this group heading to Shanghai rather than Hong Kong, which is a different investor base and a different disclosure regime.
MetaX沐曦
A Hong Kong listing on top of the Shanghai one, six months after a debut that closed up nearly 700 percent.
- Confidential filing
- Confidentially filed for a Hong Kong listing, working with Huatai International, and is targeting an IPO by the end of 2026, per sources.South China Morning Post ·
- Size of the offer
- Said in a filing it planned to issue H shares equal to no more than 5 percent of its enlarged capital, for next-generation GPU development, its software ecosystem, supply-chain investment and possible acquisitions.Company filing, via SCMP ·
- Reported financials
- Revenue rose more than 450 percent year on year to about 1.2 billion yuan over the first nine months of 2025, with losses down 55.8 percent to about 345.5 million yuan.Company filings, via SCMP ·
A second listing this soon after the first is about currency, not cash: a Hong Kong line gives a company hard currency for overseas suppliers and a shareholder base that mainland retail enthusiasm cannot set the price of alone. Capping the offer near 5 percent of enlarged capital keeps dilution small, which suggests the point is access rather than the raise. Whether it lands before the end of 2026 is the test.
Kunlunxin昆仑芯
The Shanghai half of a dual-track listing, in the pre-filing tutoring stage a mainland IPO requires.
- Listing guidance
- Began the STAR Market listing guidance process, the pre-filing stage, alongside the Hong Kong track. No application has been filed.EE Times China, STAR Market Daily, via TrendForce ·
- Analyst valuation rangeSuperseded
- ReportedAnalysts put Hong Kong-listed Chinese GPU companies in a HK$30 billion to HK$100 billion band, with Kunlunxin toward the upper end. This is an analyst estimate, not a filing.via TrendForce ·
- CAD view our readingA band for the category, not a figure for this company, and not in the same currency as the targets.It sizes Hong Kong-listed Chinese GPU peers in general and is quoted in Hong Kong dollars, so its HK$100 billion ceiling is a much smaller number than the South China Morning Post’s "at least 100 billion yuan" for the Hong Kong track. The two figures share the digits and the word billion, mean different amounts, and are routinely quoted as though they were the same estimate.
Running Shanghai and Hong Kong at once is now the default for Chinese chip companies with the standing to try it, because the two venues price the same asset differently and neither is guaranteed to open. Which track actually completes first, and whether the other quietly lapses, tells you more about where domestic capital wants this listed than any of the reported valuations do.
Iluvatar CoreX天数智芯
The general-purpose GPU designer, and the second Chinese GPU maker to list in Hong Kong inside a week.
- Debut
- Opened at HK$190.20 against a HK$144.60 offer price, up about 31.5 percent, then gave most of it back: HK$162.50 by the midday break, up 12.4 percent, and a close of HK$156.80, up 8.4 percent.Caixin, Yicai Global, Reuters ·
- Raise
- HK$3.68 billion gross from 25,431,800 H shares at HK$144.60, about HK$3.479 billion net of expenses, roughly $475 million.HKEX filing, via uSMART ·
- Demand and debut value
- The offer was reported oversubscribed about 414 times. Caixin put the market capitalisation at about HK$41.3 billion, roughly $5.3 billion, on the debut.Caixin ·
- Post-lock-up placing
- Placed new H shares for about HK$7.07 billion (roughly $902 million) as the IPO lock-up expired, priced at a reported 15 percent discount to the previous close, with the stock reported up more than 230 percent from the offer price.Kirkland & Ellis, Bloomberg ·
Iluvatar is the useful control in this group. It listed six days after Biren into the same market on a similar story, and the two days diverged: Biren opened about 82 percent up and held nearly all of it to a close about 76 percent up, while Iluvatar opened about 31 percent up and closed about 8 percent up, surrendering roughly three-quarters of its pop inside one session. Two domestic GPU listings a week apart behaving that differently is the earliest evidence that Hong Kong was pricing these companies individually rather than buying the category. The July placing is the sequel worth noting: the first of these companies to reach its lock-up expiry used the moment to sell more stock at a discount rather than to defend the price.
Kunlunxin昆仑芯
Baidu’s AI chip arm, filed confidentially in Hong Kong as a carve-out from its parent.
- Reported valuation target
- ReportedTargeting a valuation near $50 billion, per two sources. Investors were reported to have been asked to buy chips worth three to seven times their intended subscription. Baidu’s Hong Kong shares rose more than 7 percent on the report.The Information, via CNBC and Reuters ·
- CAD view our readingUnclear. Somewhere between $2.97 billion and $50 billion, and those are not competing estimates of one number.Only the 21 billion yuan round was actually priced; the two larger figures are pre-deal targets reported before any prospectus, and the $50 billion one was larger than parent Baidu’s entire market value on the day it appeared, so we treat the priced round as the floor, the targets as asks, and nothing here as settled until terms are filed.
- Reported financials
- ReportedReported to expect revenue above 3.5 billion yuan and break-even in 2026, against a roughly 200 million yuan net loss on about 2 billion yuan of revenue in 2024. External customers were reported to be more than half of 2025 revenue.Reuters, citing investment materials ·
- CAD view our readingTreat the 2024 figures as reliable and the 2026 forecast as a sales document.Reuters is explicit that these came from investment materials shown to prospective buyers, which makes the historical loss and revenue worth having and the break-even forecast a projection by the party raising the money, not an audited or filed number.
- Earlier reported valuation targetSuperseded
- Reported to be seeking a valuation of at least 100 billion yuan (about $14.69 billion) for the Hong Kong listing, with sources noting the figure could move with market conditions and final terms.South China Morning Post ·
- Confidential filing
- Filed a confidential main-board application with the Hong Kong exchange as a carve-out listing. Confidential filings are not public documents, so the terms are not on the record.Bloomberg, CNBC ·
- Last priced round
- ReportedCompleted a funding round valuing the company at 21 billion yuan, about $2.97 billion, roughly six months before the listing plan surfaced. Baidu held about 59 percent; investors included a China Mobile fund. Some coverage rendered this figure as HK$23.11 billion.Reuters ·
- CAD view our readingThe only number here that anyone actually paid. Not superseded by the targets above.A completed round is priced by investors putting money in, while a reported target is a number the company and its banks would like to reach, so this stays on the page as the last hard data point rather than being marked superseded by figures of a different kind. Note also that the widely repeated "close to $23 billion" is this same figure in Hong Kong dollars, not a fifth valuation.
The valuation reporting moved roughly seventeen-fold in seven months, which is why every figure above carries the date it was reported rather than being folded into one number. The useful distinction is priced against sought: one round was actually paid for, the two larger figures are targets circulated before any prospectus, and a confidential application puts nothing on the public record. The reported condition that investors buy chips worth three to seven times their subscription is the detail to watch, because it makes demand for the stock and demand for the product impossible to tell apart, and it is the mechanism by which a target valuation could be met without independent demand at that level.
Biren壁仞科技
The first mainland GPU designer to list in Hong Kong, and the first new listing anywhere in 2026.
- Debut
- Closed at HK$34.46 against a HK$19.60 offer price, up about 76 percent, after reaching HK$42.88 intraday. The best first-day showing since early 2021 among Hong Kong listings raising at least $700 million.Bloomberg, SCMP, RTHK ·
- Raise
- HK$5.58 billion (about $717 million) from 284.8 million H shares at HK$19.60, the top of the marketed range.HKEX filing, Bloomberg ·
- Demand
- The retail tranche was oversubscribed about 2,348 times; institutional demand was close to 26 times the shares on offer.SCMP, Bloomberg ·
A 2,348-times retail book is not a judgment about Biren’s chips, it is a judgment about how few ways there are to own domestic GPU capacity. The thing to watch is the gap between that demand and what the company ships: Biren went public without the volume record its valuation implies, and the lock-up expiries through 2026 and 2027 are the first real test of whether the buyers were investors or a queue.
MetaX沐曦
The second Chinese GPU maker to go public, twelve days after the first, and the sharper debut of the two.
- Debut
- Closed at 829.90 yuan against a 104.66 yuan offer price, up just under 693 percent, taking the market value above 332 billion yuan.SCMP, Taipei Times ·
- Raise
- About 4.197 billion yuan (US$585.8 million per the Taipei Times) from 40.10 million shares at 104.66 yuan.Prospectus, via TrendForce ·
MetaX listed under the STAR Market’s growth tier, which is the designation for a company that is not yet profitable, and closed its first day up nearly sevenfold anyway. It went back for a Hong Kong listing within six months, which is the more informative fact: a company that had just raised at that multiple still wanted a second currency.
Moore Threads摩尔线程
The first of China’s GPU startups to reach a public market, and the listing that opened the window the others walked through.
- Debut
- Closed at 600.50 yuan against a 114.28 yuan offer price, up about 425 percent, after touching 688 yuan intraday, up about 502 percent.DigiTimes, Bitget, TradingView ·
- Raise
- About 8 billion yuan gross from 70 million shares at 114.28 yuan, about 7.576 billion net of expenses, roughly US$1.07 billion per DigiTimes. The largest STAR Market IPO of 2025.TrendForce, DigiTimes ·
- Time to market
- Application accepted 30 June 2025, cleared review 26 September, CSRC registration 30 October, listed 5 December: about 158 days.Shanghai Stock Exchange filings, via Bitget ·
The 158-day clock is the part with consequences beyond one company. A STAR Market review that used to take years ran in about five months, and every GPU listing since has moved at something like that pace. When a regulator changes the speed of the queue it is making industrial policy, and the listings that followed are what it bought.
Common questions
Which Chinese AI chip companies have gone public?
Moore Threads listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market on 5 December 2025 and MetaX on 17 December 2025. Biren listed in Hong Kong on 2 January 2026, the first new listing anywhere that year, and Iluvatar CoreX followed on 8 January 2026. CXMT, the DRAM maker, listed on the STAR Market on 27 July 2026 in the largest mainland semiconductor IPO on record. Enflame has regulatory clearance but has not debuted, and Kunlunxin has filed confidentially in Hong Kong.
Is Baidu’s Kunlunxin going public?
It has filed, but nothing is on the public record. Kunlunxin filed a confidential Hong Kong main-board application as a carve-out from Baidu on 2 January 2026 and began STAR Market listing guidance on 7 May 2026, a dual track. Reported valuations have moved a long way: close to $3 billion when the plan first surfaced, about $14.7 billion in early June 2026 per the South China Morning Post, and about $50 billion later that month per The Information. Those are journalists citing sources, not filed figures, and a confidential filing does not put terms on the record.
How much did Biren raise in its Hong Kong IPO?
HK$5.58 billion, about $717 million, from 284.8 million H shares priced at HK$19.60, the top of the marketed range. The retail tranche was oversubscribed about 2,348 times and institutional demand was close to 26 times the shares on offer. The stock closed its first day at HK$34.46, up about 76 percent, after touching HK$42.88 intraday.
Are all of these companies the same kind of chip company?
No, and the distinction matters for reading the numbers. Moore Threads, MetaX, Biren and Iluvatar CoreX design general-purpose GPUs, which run graphics and broad compute work as well as AI. Enflame builds fixed-function AI accelerator cards. Kunlunxin is a carve-out from Baidu rather than an independent startup, and most of its deployed volume runs inside its parent. CXMT is a DRAM maker, not a processor designer at all. Comparing debut multiples across those four categories compares different businesses.
What is the "CAD view" column?
It is our reading of a reported figure, shown beside that figure rather than instead of it. Chinese chip listings generate a lot of numbers that all get described as "reported", and when three outlets put a company an order of magnitude apart, a reader looking at the spread learns nothing. The CAD view says which figure we find credible as of the last-verified date and gives the reason in the same row. It is a judgment about sources, not a valuation we calculated: we run no model and the column contains no number that no source has published. Where the reporting genuinely does not resolve, it says so, which is often the honest answer. Most rows have no CAD view at all, because a figure filed in a prospectus needs no interpretation.
Why does this tracker not show share prices?
Because it is a filing-status tracker, not a market-data feed. It is a static page rebuilt by hand, so a price on it would be wrong within a day and stale prices are how an accuracy-first publication turns into a stock tip. Every figure here is one somebody filed or reported on a stated date, and the page carries the date the desk last checked all of it.
What is the difference between a confidential filing and a listing?
A confidential filing is an application to the exchange that is not published, so no prospectus, no terms and no verified financials are on the public record. Regulatory clearance means the last gate has been passed but shares are not trading. Listed means shares are trading. This tracker labels every row with which of those it is, because reporting around Chinese chip IPOs routinely blurs the three.
Sources and method
Every figure on this page is attributed to the party that filed it or the outlet that reported it, with the date it was filed or reported. Where a figure has been superseded, the earlier one stays visible and marked, because a number that moved is itself information.
The CAD view column is the one place on this page where the words are ours rather than a source's, and it is bounded deliberately. It appears only beside a reported figure that carries a named source and a date, never on its own. It always states a reason in the same row, and a reading we cannot justify in a sentence does not get published. It contains no number that no source has printed: it selects among reported figures, gives a range bounded by them, or says the reporting is unresolved. We publish no valuation, price target or market value that we calculated ourselves, and there is none on this page.
The "what to watch" notes are the longer form of the same judgment, in prose, on what a listing turns on next. Both are readings as of the last-verified date at the top, not standing opinions.
Confidential filings are flagged as such throughout. A confidential application means no prospectus, no terms and no audited figures are on the public record, however much reporting surrounds it.
The machine-readable version of this tracker, with the same sources and dates, is at/trackers/ipo-watch.json. Corrections go to the address on ourabout page and are logged publicly.