by XU Meihui
China's push to build a homegrown GPU ecosystem advanced on Wednesday, with MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. making its market debut as the country's second homegrown GPU developer to list on the A-share market after Moore Threads.
Shares in MetaX jumped 568.83% to 700 yuan at the open on Shanghai's STAR Market, extending a rally that began earlier this month when Moore Threads climbed 468% on its first trading day.
Analysts said the back-to-back listings point to a broader shift in investor funding toward homegrown computing hardware.
China's AI chip market is projected to expand from about 142.5 billion yuan (about US$20 billion) in 2024 to 1.34 trillion yuan (about US$190 billion) by 2029, according to Frost & Sullivan, implying annual growth of around 54%.
Bernstein Research estimates MetaX accounted for about 1% of China's AI chip market in 2024. Domestic rivals include GPU designers such as Hygon Information Technology, Biren Technology and Moore Threads, alongside several ASIC-focused players.
Biren Technology is pursuing a Hong Kong IPO, planning to issue up to 372 million overseas-listed shares, according to a filing released on Dec. 15 by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. People familiar with the matter said Enflame has restarted its IPO tutoring process, while Iluvatar CoreX is accelerating preparations for a Hong Kong listing.
An industry source told Jiemian News that investor appetite for chip stocks has strengthened toward year-end, with rising secondary-market interest feeding through to primary-market fundraising. Another industry insider said labels such as "first" or "second" GPU listings matter little, adding that long-term outcomes will depend on products and execution.
MetaX moved quickly to market, taking 170 days from application acceptance to listing, compared with about 158 days for Moore Threads. The company issued 40.1 million shares at 104.66 yuan apiece, raising about 4.2 billion yuan (about US$596 million), with an online subscription success rate of roughly 0.033%.
Chairman and chief executive CHEN Weiliang said proceeds will be used for high-performance general-purpose GPU development, next-generation AI inference chips, and advanced GPU technologies for emerging applications.
Founded in September 2020, MetaX was set up by former AMD engineers including CHEN Weiliang, PENG Li and YANG Jian, giving it a technical profile distinct from Moore Threads, whose founders previously worked at Nvidia.
The company has completed more than 10 funding rounds and counts over 120 shareholders, including HongShan, MPCi and China Life Capital. Veteran investor GE Weidong holds more than 7%, while Chen controls 22.94% of the shares.
MetaX develops GPUs and computing platforms for AI, general-purpose computing and graphics rendering. Its MetaX N-series and MetaX C-series chips are already in mass production, while a graphics-focused G-series remains under development.
Revenue has grown rapidly, but losses remain heavy. Sales climbed to 743 million yuan （about US$105 million）in 2024, with H1 2025 revenue already exceeding that level, while net losses narrowed to 186 million yuan (about US$26 million) in the first half of the year. The company said it does not expect to break even before 2026.
Like Moore Threads, MetaX faces entrenched competition from Nvidia and AMD, which together control more than 90% of the global high-end GPU market. Industry executives say long-term outcomes will depend on products, execution and access to long-term capital.