China's AI chip IPO boom rolls on as another Nvidia challenger soars 200% in market debut

Investors are piling into China's artificial intelligence chipmakers as Beijing's push to build domestic alternatives to Nvidia fuels a new wave of blockbuster IPOs.

On Friday, Shanghai Enflame Technology surged about 200% in its debut on Shanghai's tech-focused Star market after raising 6.12 billion yuan, or $913 million.

Backed by the Chinese gaming giant Tencent, Enflame develops AI chips for training and inference, making it one of a new generation of domestic chipmakers benefiting from Beijing's push for semiconductor self-sufficiency amid US export restrictions.

Enflame's online retail tranche was more than 6,000 times oversubscribed, underscoring strong investor appetite for Chinese AI chipmakers.

Enflame's debut follows the December listing of fellow AI GPU designer Moore Threads, another Chinese startup seeking to challenge Nvidia, as well as the recent high-profile IPOs of memory chipmaker CXMT and robotics company Unitree.

The listing also offers a glimpse into the economics of China's emerging AI chipmakers.

In 2025, Enflame's revenue rose 37% to 990 million yuan, while its loss excluding non-recurring items narrowed to 1.20 billion yuan, according to the company's listing prospectus. Meanwhile, its largest customer, Chinese internet and gaming giant Tencent, accounted for nearly 84% of sales. The company expects to break even in 2026 or 2027.

Enflame's strong market debut reflects growing investor appetite for Chinese AI and semiconductor IPOs.

China is "still at a very early stage of a multi-year IPO upcycle" as semiconductor, AI infrastructure, and robotics companies tap public markets to fund research and expansion, wrote Morgan Stanley analysts in a note on August 28.

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The bank said many of the new listings are developing technologies China sees as strategically important, with companies investing more heavily in research and capital spending, though many have yet to become profitable.

"Capital markets are therefore critical to help them scale up," the bank's analysts wrote.