Tencent-backed Enflame triples in Shanghai debut as China AI chip bets surge

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Sept 11 — Chinese artificial intelligence chipmaker Shanghai Enflame Technology surged about 200% in its ​Shanghai debut on Friday, after the Tencent-backed company raised 6.12 billion yuan ($912 million) in its initial public offering.

The stock opened at 410 yuan versus its offer price of 142.18 yuan, and ‌rose to as high as 475 yuan before slipping back to around 430 yuan. China's STAR Market dropped more than 2%, while ⁠the CSI 300 Index was down 1.43%.

Enflame's debut adds ​to a rush of listings by Chinese companies ⁠seeking to supply computing chips for artificial intelligence, as Beijing pushes for home-grown alternatives to U.S. suppliers ‌such as Nvidia.

"Currently, subscription for ‌new shares in the A-share market is one of the few investment approaches that ⁠can bring definite returns to investors," said Shen Meng, director at ⁠Beijing-based boutique investment bank Chanson & Co.

He said GPU-related businesses offered investors clearer growth prospects than some concept stocks with weaker fundamentals, while U.S. restrictions on Chinese access to advanced chips have increased interest in domestic alternatives.

Enflame is one of a group of Chinese AI chip startups sometimes called the "four little GPU dragons", alongside Moore Threads, MetaX and Biren Technology.

Enflame sold 43.04 million new shares, equal ‌to 10% of its enlarged share capital, on Shanghai's tech-focused STAR ​Market.

Its offer price gave it a market value of about 61.2 billion yuan, according to its filing on Wednesday.

At around 430 yuan on Friday, Enflame's market value had jumped to roughly 185 billion yuan, more than triple the valuation at the IPO price.

Tencent is Enflame's largest shareholder, with a 17.95% stake after the offering, and was also the company's largest customer before the listing.

Sales linked to Tencent accounted for 83.79% of Enflame's 2025 revenue, its prospectus showed.

Enflame has yet to turn a ​profit. Its net loss narrowed to 1.16 billion yuan in 2025 from 1.51 billion yuan a year earlier, while revenue rose ‌37% to 990.2 ‌million yuan, the ⁠prospectus showed.

The company forecast revenue of 2.3 billion yuan to 3 billion yuan for the first nine months of 2026, alongside a net loss of 700 million yuan to 860 million yuan.

It expects to break even or become profitable in 2026 or 2027, depending on revenue growth and margins, the filing showed.

The company plans ‌to use most of the ​proceeds to develop its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips, related ‌software and large scale computing ⁠systems, according to its ​prospectus.

($1 = 6.7061 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui in Hong Kong and Samuel Shen in Shanghai; Editing by Jacqueline Wong ​and Kim Coghill)

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