The listing comes just days after Moore Threads Technology Co., whose shares had surged over 400% on its listing.
MetaX raised $585.8 million in its IPO, and the listing day pop puts the stock on course for the best performing debut IPO in China sized between $500 million to $1 billion, over the last decade.
Similar to Moore Threads, MetaX is a manufacturer of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for artificial intelligence developers, which is currently the hot investor favourite as consumers and businesses adapt to more AI services.
The portion reserved for retail investors in MetaX's IPO, was subscribed nearly 3,000 times the total number of shares on offer, drawing an even bigger demand than Moore Threads. In just eight trading sessions since listing, shares of Moore Threads are already up 6x from its IPO price.
Investors are latching on to the narrative that local chipmakers will emerge as viable alternatives to Nvidia Corp., whose most advanced chips cannot be sold in the Chinese markets due to trade restrictions.
The listing surge has taken MetaX's market capitalization past 300 billion Yuan, having priced its IPO at 104.66 Yuan. Moore Threads' current market cap stands at 337 billion Yuan. MetaX's price-to-sales ratio currently is at 56.4, still lower than the average of 127.4 for peers such as Cambricon, AMD, among others.
MetaX can trace its roots to AMD, with three key members of its founding team having previously worked for the US chipmaker. Those include Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chen Weiliang.
In 2024, its AI-focused Xiyun C500 series, which the company claimed was comparable to Nvidia’s A100, accounted for nearly 98% of total revenue. The newer C588 generation has significantly narrowed the performance gap with Nvidia’s H100, MetaX says. The company had a 1% market share in China's AI chip market as of last year, according to its IPO papers.
Among other chipmakers to potentially list in China are ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. The two firms may each seek a valuation of 200 billion yuan to 300 billion yuan.
(With Inputs From Agencies)
