SHANGHAI, Dec 17 (Reuters) - MetaX Integrated Circuits jumped 700% in its Shanghai market debut as the Chinese AI chipmaker tapped into strong momentum triggered by Beijing's push to reduce reliance on chips
from U.S. firms Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Founded by former AMD executives, MetaX raised roughly $600 million in an initial public offering last week, days after larger rival Moore Threads debuted with a 400% pop.
MetaX opened at 700 yuan a share in Shanghai versus an IPO price of 104.66 yuan, before surging as high as 895 yuan, defying persistent AI bubble concerns in other markets. The stock ended the trading session at 829.9 yuan, up 693%.
"It's another IPO tale in China that turns a crow into a phoenix," said fund manager Yang Tingwu at Tongheng Investment.
The price surge "creates huge arbitrage opportunities" for pre-IPO investors, Yang said, and "we're likely witnessing the stock's peak level for the next five years".
Makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips are rushing to sell shares in China to capitalise on interest generated by a government drive to boost local production in competition with the U.S.
"AI and semiconductors are key areas of competition in the Sino-U.S. tech rivalry," Guotai Haitong Securities said in a report ahead of MetaX's listing. "Against the backdrop of geopolitical tension, AI chipmaking has huge growth potential," as China seeks to achieve self-sufficiency.
Researcher Frost & Sullivan forecast China AI chip sales to top $189 billion by 2029 versus $54 billion in 2026.
POLICYMAKERS PUSH AI SELF-SUFFICIENCY
MetaX, which makes graphics processing units (GPUs), raised 4.2 billion yuan ($596 million) last week in a share sale that was more than 4,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors.
The IPO - China's sixth biggest so far this year, according to KPMG - priced the money-losing startup at 50 times its 2024 sales. That compared with a multiple of 34 for Nvidia and 14 for AMD, MetaX said in a pre-listing statement.
MetaX's debut catapulted the value of the five-year-old startup to more than 300 billion yuan ($42.58 billion) and boosted the wealth of founder and major shareholder Chen Weiliang, 49.
After working for AMD Shanghai for 13 years, Chen founded MetaX with a mission to "contribute to China's rejuvenation and national prosperity." The founding team also included Peng Li and Yang Jian, both former AMD engineers.
"The company is a leading GPU maker in China thanks to its AMD gene," Li Hui, analyst at Huajin Securities, said in a report ahead of MetaX's listing.
"It will likely benefit from China's continuous push to replace foreign suppliers using indigenous technology."
MetaX, which controls 1% of China's AI chip market, projects the company's sales to more than double this year due to the tech self-reliance drive, and expects to break even as early as next year.
CHINESE AI CHIPMAKERS RUSH FOR IPOS
MetaX's market debut comes after Moore Threads, dubbed by analysts as "China's Nvidia", raised $1.1 billion in its Shanghai IPO in late November.
On Monday, AI chip startup Biren Technology won regulatory approval to sell shares publicly in Hong Kong, while rival Kunlunxin also plans an IPO in the city. Another AI chipmaker, Enflame, has hired Citic Securities to prepare for a flotation.
"Chinese policymakers are greenlighting IPOs for AI chipmakers to support home-grown advanced technology," said fund manager Yuan Yuwei at Trinity Synergy Investments in Hong Kong.
"Domestic chipmakers lag U.S. rivals, but if they can raise tens or hundreds of billions to spend on talent, you cannot rule out their breakthrough."
IPO fundraising in China jumped 23% in 2025 from a year earlier to exceed 160 billion yuan, according to KPMG, with 23% of the proceeds going to the technology, media and telecom sector.
SIGNIFICANT TECHNOLOGY GAP
MetaX flagged a number of risk factors in its IPO prospectus, including supply chain disruption from U.S. technology restrictions as well as its significant technology gap with Nvidia and AMD.
Nvidia is considering adding production capacity for its H200 AI chips due to strong orders from Chinese clients, after U.S. President Donald Trump this month greenlighted export of Nvidia's second-fastest AI chips to China.
In the home GPU market, MetaX competes with Moore Threads as well as Hygon Information Technology and Biren.
In the so-called ASIC chip business, it competes with Cambricon, Huawei Technologies' HiSilicon, Baidu's Kunlunxin and Alibaba Group's T-Head.
"MetaX's technology lags Moore Threads, and it faces stiff competition from Huawei and Alibaba," said Yuan of Trinity Synergy Investments.
There will be room to improve, "but under the current circumstances, there's definitely froth in its share price."
($1 = 7.0458 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, Christopher Cushing and Thomas Derpinghaus)
