Shanghai Enflame IPO sees strong demand from retail investors as China bets big on domestic AI chips

Shanghai Enflame Technology, one of China’s homegrown answers to Nvidia, just completed an IPO that retail investors apparently could not throw money at fast enough. The AI chipmaker raised approximately 6.1 billion yuan, or roughly $910 million, by selling 43 million shares at 142.18 yuan each on Shanghai’s STAR Market. The retail subscription rate tells the real story: individual investors oversubscribed the offering by as many as 6,109 times, placing more than 7 million separate orders. A chip off the old geopolitical block Enflame, also known as Suiyuan Technology, was founded in March 2018 by Zhao Lidong and Zhang Yalin, both former AMD engineers. The company has steadily positioned itself among China’s top domestic AI chip developers, alongside firms like Moore Threads, MetaX, and Biren Technology. The offering represented roughly 10% of the company’s newly enlarged share capital. Enflame plans to channel the proceeds into developing and producing next-generation AI chips, with new products expected to arrive in 2027 and 2029. That roadmap also includes enhancing both software and hardware capabilities. Strong growth, but profitability remains elusive Enflame is not yet profi...