Competing in the semiconductor track, Shanghai has made another pivotal move.
Shanghai's "listed army" of AI hard-tech enterprises has welcomed a new member. On September 11, Shanghai Enflame Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Enflame Technology") was officially listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Enflame Technology publicly issued 43,035,173 shares at an issue price of 142.18 yuan per share, with the total estimated raised funds reaching about 6.119 billion yuan. The raised funds will be mainly invested in three directions: R&D and industrialization of the 5th-generation AI chip series products, R&D and industrialization of the 6th-generation AI chip series products, and the collaborative innovation project of advanced artificial intelligence software and hardware.
As one of the leading enterprises in China's cloud AI chip sector, Enflame Technology was founded in March 2018 with its headquarters based in Shanghai. Over the 8 years since its establishment, the company has independently developed and iterated 5 cloud AI chips with 4 generations of architectures, building a complete product system covering AI chips, AI acceleration cards and modules, intelligent computing systems and clusters, as well as AI computing and programming software platforms. Following Enflame Technology's listing, together with the previously listed Muxi Semiconductor, Biren Technology and Iluvatar CoreX, the "Four Little Dragons of Shanghai AI Chips" have all entered the capital market.
Back in 2020, Shanghai put forward the goal of doubling the scale of its three pillar pioneering industries: integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence. In 2025, the scale of Shanghai's integrated circuit industry reached about 580 billion yuan, more than doubling its size in five years; the city is home to over 1,200 integrated circuit enterprises, and with Enflame Technology included, 38 integrated circuit enterprises have been listed on the STAR Market.
This phenomenal "listing relay race" is no coincidence. More than one enterprise has stated that a major factor for choosing to start a business in Shanghai is its industrial ecosystem. According to local media reports, Shanghai is the only city in China that fully covers the entire integrated circuit industrial chain including materials, equipment, EDA/IP, design, manufacturing, packaging and testing.
Taking Enflame Technology as an example, within a radius of dozens of kilometers, there are Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and HuaHong Group for manufacturing, Will Semiconductor and Montage Technology for design, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) for equipment, and Shanghai Simgui Technology for materials. Every generation of chips it produces can complete the full-process closed loop from tape-out manufacturing to packaging and testing right near its headquarters.
Moreover, the AI chip track requires an extremely long R&D cycle and massive R&D investment, which calls for matching patient capital. Zhao Lidong, Chairman of Enflame Technology, once stated that from the first investment in its early startup stage to the last round of financing before IPO, Shanghai's state-owned capital has provided support at multiple key nodes.
As the main platform for Shanghai's sci-tech innovation investment, Shanghai State-owned Investment currently has established a fund matrix covering angel funds, VC, PE, FOF, S funds, CVC and M&A funds, and set up three pioneering industry FOFs and future industry funds with a total scale of 105 billion yuan, forming a long-term support mechanism for core technology breakthroughs, industrial chain organization, and achievement transformation.
Not long ago, the "15th Five-Year Plan for Shanghai to Accelerate the Advancement of New Industrialization and Build a Modern Industrial System" was released, proposing that by 2030, the comprehensive strength of the industrial economy that matches Shanghai's urban functions and high-quality development will be further enhanced. The plan clearly states that three trillion-level industrial clusters for integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence will be newly built.
Focusing on the integrated circuit industry, efforts will be made to vigorously cultivate leading enterprises in the sector, accelerate industry M&A and integration as well as industrial chain integration, and promote high-performance computing power chips, general-purpose processor chips, memory chips, interconnection chips and intelligent sensors to reach the internationally advanced level. At the same time, the manufacturing level and packaging capacity will be improved, the construction of major production line projects will be accelerated, the process iteration and production capacity upgrading will be promoted, featured processes will be strengthened, and the industrialization of advanced packaging technologies will be accelerated.
This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Urban Evolution Theory", written by Yang Huan, and published with authorization by 36Kr.