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 (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
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.
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.
