Today, the 200-billion-yuan AI chip IPO backed by Tencent surged 188% at market opening.

Core Eastern reports on September 11 that today, Enflame Technology, a leading Shanghai-based AI chip enterprise, has been listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market).

Its issue price is 142.18 yuan per share, and its share price rose 188.37% to 410.00 yuan per share at opening today. As of 9:35, its share price rose by a maximum of 234.08% to 475.00 yuan per share, with a total market value of 204.4 billion yuan.

Founded in March 2018, Enflame Technology has independently developed and iterated 4 generations of architectures and 5 cloud AI chips, making it one of the leading cloud AI chip enterprises in China.

Tencent is the major shareholder and the largest end customer of Enflame Technology, holding 20.26% of shares jointly with its related parties. China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II, Meitu Technology, Shanghai Industrial Investment, Zhejiang Fund are also shareholders of Enflame Technology. TFME and ZTE have both participated in the strategic placement of Enflame Technology.

In addition to participating in the intelligent computing center projects at the national "East Data, West Computing" hub nodes, Enflame is actively deepening cooperation with domestic telecom operators and exploring business opportunities in multiple vertical industries.

According to the prospectus, different from the GPU architectures adopted by enterprises such as NVIDIA, AMD, T-Head, Haiguang, Moore Threads, Mthreads, Biren Technology and Iluvatar CoreX, Enflame Technology, HiSilicon and Cambricon all belong to the DSA (Domain Specific Architecture) technology camp.

Mass-produced self-developed cloud AI chip products of major Internet manufacturers such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Meta and Microsoft all adopt the DSA architecture.

Based on the model forecast of Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, the shipment proportion of non-GPGPU architecture (i.e. DSA architecture) chips in AI chips for AI servers will show a clear upward trend, which is expected to gradually increase from 36% in 2024 to 45% in 2027.

According to IDC statistics and Enflame's sales data, China's AI accelerator shipments reached about 4 million units in 2025, of which NVIDIA accounted for about 2.2 million units, taking up 55% of the market share; Enflame accounted for about 66,000 units, taking up 1.7% of the market share.

In the first half of 2026, Enflame Technology's revenue reached 1.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 279.08%, exceeding its full-year revenue of 990 million yuan in 2025. The company expects to achieve consolidated statement profitability in 2026 or 2027.

▲ Comparison of core financial data of domestic listed AI chip companies in the first half of 2026 (chart by Core Eastern)

As of yesterday's close, the total market values of Cambricon, Mthreads, Moore Threads, Biren Technology and Iluvatar CoreX were 656.4 billion yuan, 197.6 billion yuan, 171.1 billion yuan, 97.1 billion Hong Kong dollars and 86.4 billion Hong Kong dollars respectively, far behind NVIDIA's market value of 5.27 trillion US dollars.

In this IPO, Enflame Technology plans to raise 6 billion yuan and actually raises 6.119 billion yuan, which is planned to be mainly invested in the 5th and 6th generation AI chip products, as well as advanced AI software and hardware collaborative innovation projects.

Enflame Technology plans to use the funds raised from this listing to implement the advanced AI software and hardware collaborative innovation project. Through joint R&D with domestic manufacturers, it will build cloud AI chips based on domestic advanced processes and commercially deployable over 10,000-card training/inference clusters, and further improve the software ecosystem based on mainstream large AI models.

01.

Veteran AMD staff founded the company, Phase II of the national big fund took shares,

10,000-card intelligent computing projects have generated revenue

In March 2018, two former AMD executives Zhao Lidong and Zhang Yalin founded Enflame Technology in a temporary office in Zhangjiang, Shanghai.

Zhao Lidong, an alumnus of the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University, has successively served as Senior Director of the Computing Business Unit and Senior Director of the Product Engineering Department at AMD, responsible for CPU/APU product planning and R&D of multiple related core IPs, and participated in the establishment of AMD China R&D Center.

Zhang Yalin, an alumnus of the Department of Electronics and Information Systems of Fudan University, has successively served as senior chip manager and technical director of China R&D Center at AMD. As one of the main heads of AMD's global chip R&D, he successfully led the development and mass production of many important products.

Since the establishment of Enflame Technology, Zhao Lidong has served as Chairman and CEO, and Zhang Yalin has served as General Manager and COO, always leading the company's strategic direction and decision-making on important matters.

They chose to develop cloud AI chips. In 2019, Enflame Technology released its first generation of TuSi chips. In the following 8 years, the company completed the iteration of 4 generations of architectures and 5 cloud AI chips, expanding its products from chips to accelerator cards and modules, intelligent computing systems and clusters, as well as the self-developed TopsRider software platform.

The prospectus shows that its 1000-card and 10000-card intelligent computing center projects have generated revenue, it has jointly developed super-node solutions with customers, and jointly built a 10000-card high-speed interconnection cluster with commercial value.

Many deputy general managers of Enflame Technology have worked at AMD: Zhang Min (Chief People Officer), Chai Jing (Head of Hardware Chip Department), Gao Xiaotian (Head of Customer Success and Solution Engineering Department), all of whom used to work at AMD China Co., Ltd.

As of the signing date of the prospectus, Zhao Lidong and Zhang Yalin hold a total of 17.93% of shares directly, and indirectly control 10.21% of equity through two employee shareholding platforms Enflame Huizhi and Enflame Chongying, with a total controlling stake of 28.14%.

Among other major shareholders, Tencent Technology and its related parties hold 20.26% of shares, Wuyuefeng Phase II and its related parties hold 5.71% of shares, and China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II holds 4.32% of shares.

02.

Revenue surged 279% in the first half of the year,

exceeding the full-year revenue of last year

In 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, Enflame Technology's revenue was 90 million yuan, 301 million yuan, 722 million yuan and 990 million yuan respectively; net loss was 1.116 billion yuan, 1.665 billion yuan, 1.510 billion yuan and 1.164 billion yuan respectively; R&D expenses were 988 million yuan, 1.229 billion yuan, 1.312 billion yuan and 1.135 billion yuan respectively.

▲ Changes in revenue, net profit and R&D expenses of Enflame Technology from 2022 to the first half of 2026 (chart by Core Eastern)

Overall, the company's main financial indicators are gradually improving. Its revenue in the first half of 2026 has exceeded the full-year revenue of last year, but it has not yet achieved profitability.

In the first half of 2026, Enflame achieved revenue of 1.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 279.08%, and its half-year revenue has exceeded the full-year revenue of 2025; its net loss was 632 million yuan, expanding 3.57% compared with 611 million yuan in the same period of last year; R&D expenses for the same period were not disclosed in the prospectus.

The company expects its revenue in the first three quarters of 2026 to be 2.3 billion yuan to 3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 325.78% to 455.36%; its attributable net loss to be 700 million yuan to 860 million yuan.

03.

Sales of AI accelerator cards and modules exceeded 60,000 units last year,

over 80% of revenue came from inference products

During the reporting period, both the output and sales volume of Enflame Technology's AI accelerator cards and modules grew rapidly, and the production-sales ratio remained at a high level.

In terms of revenue structure, in 2023, the main business revenue of Enflame's AI accelerator cards and modules was 186 million yuan, accounting for 63.62% of the main business revenue. By 2025, this revenue has risen to 856 million yuan, accounting for 86.83% of the main business revenue.