On October 15, the shares of Chinese company MetaX, specializing in the development of microchips for artificial intelligence systems, soared by more than 750% on their first trading day on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. This surge by MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai occurred less than two weeks after the shares of another Chinese chip maker, Moore Threads, jumped 425% following an initial public offering (IPO) amounting to $1.1 billion. Both companies produce graphics processors used for the operation and training of artificial intelligence systems.
In the GPU sector, Nvidia dominates, currently the world’s most valuable company thanks to global demand and optimism regarding AI. MetaX and Moore Threads are much smaller companies, but analysts believe investors are betting on the expansion of chip production in China to eventually compete with the American giant. MetaX’s shares, priced during the IPO at 104.66 yuan (approximately $14.86), gathered $585.8 million, surged 755% up to 895 yuan before slightly dropping to 730.34 yuan.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he reached an agreement with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to allow Nvidia to export H200 chips to the country. These chips are roughly 18 months behind the most advanced developments, which will remain unavailable to China. This move marked a shift from export restrictions. Rui Ma, founder of the Tech Buzz China newsletter, stated that export control has created a high-end chip segment in China. “Combined with political support and much deeper capital pools, domestic companies producing GPUs and accelerators are now in much more favorable conditions than in previous periods,” she said. “As a result, companies like Moore Threads, Cambricon, MetaX, Biren, and Enflame are drawing significant investor interest.”
