MetaX and Moore Threads' IPOs underscore Chinese chipmakers' growing challenge to Nvidia

It felt similar déjà vu erstwhile shares of chipmaker MetaX Integrated Circuits soared 700% successful its Shanghai marketplace debut connected Wednesday. Moore Threads surged implicit 400% connected its archetypal time of trading conscionable 2 weeks earlier.

They're the latest Chinese AI spot companies the country's investors are ploughing wealth into, arsenic it races to make its ain semiconductors and situation Nvidia's dominance successful the look of U.S. export curbs.

Both are processing graphics processing units (GPUs), the benignant of spot manufactured by Nvidia and utilized for precocious AI.

Investor enthusiasm astir Chinese AI-chip IPOs is partially shaped by longer-term expectations that China volition physique a self-sufficient semiconductor ecosystem arsenic tensions with the U.S. continue, Macquarie's equity expert Eugene Hsiao told CNBC.

Washington has barred income of Nvidia's astir precocious semiconductors to the country. While U.S. President Donald Trump relaxed export curbs for immoderate Nvidia chips, regulators successful the state were readying to bounds entree to the company's processors, the Financial Times reported earlier this month, arsenic it looks to wean itself disconnected overseas tech successful the AI race. 

None of China's AI chipmakers — which see a cohort of tech giants similar Huawei, Alibaba and Baidu — person been capable to make processors comparable to Nvidia's astir precocious truthful far.

But portion important barriers stay in overcoming export power restrictions successful immoderate areas of its spot proviso chain, similar equipment, it's made important strides successful others, specified arsenic memory. 

Here's however the marketplace of China's AI spot Nvidia rivals is shaping up.

Privately-owned tech elephantine Huawei develops the Ascend bid of chips, with its next-generation model, the 950, to beryllium launched successful 2026. Nvidia told CNBC that "competition has undeniably arrived" erstwhile the caller systems were announced.

While its erstwhile Ascend models person not been considered competitory with Nvidia's connected a chip-by-chip basis, Huawei has been capable to physique high-performance "clusters" to rival the US chipmaker's astir precocious systems by linking much of its processors.

"This strategy relies connected high-speed, perchance optical interconnects to determination information rapidly crossed ample clusters – a setup that doesn't necessitate top-end chips and truthful suits China's existent strengths," Brady Wang, subordinate manager astatine Counterpoint Research, told CNBC successful November.

China's biggest hunt platform, Baidu, has progressively funneled much resources into AI and is simply a bulk shareholder successful spot decorator Kunlunxin. In November, the institution unveiled a five-year roadmap for its Kunlun AI chips, unveiling caller processors successful 2026 and 2027.

Baidu, which is traded connected the Nasdaq, uses a operation of self-developed chips and Nvidia products successful its information centers to tally its in-house AI models. The institution has looked to presumption itself arsenic a "full-stack" provider, producing chips, servers, information centers, and AI models and applications.

"Kunlunxin has emerged arsenic a starring home AI spot developer, focusing connected high-performance AI chips for ample connection exemplary (LLM) grooming and inference, unreality computing, and telecom and endeavor workloads," analysts astatine Deutsche Bank said successful a enactment successful November.

JPMorgan said successful a November enactment that it viewed the Kunlun AI spot arsenic 1 of the "best-positioned" arsenic Chinese hyperscalers progressively root from section solution providers.

E-commerce elephantine Alibaba — which is sometimes compared with Amazon arsenic it is 1 of the biggest unreality providers locally — began processing AI chips successful the precocious 2010s. It was processing a caller AI spot successful August, CNBC reported, specifically designed for inference alternatively than training.

Alibaba's stock roseate successful September aft reports that the institution had secured a large customer for its AI chips.  

"Improved show of its self-developed chip" was 1 of the factors that supported gross maturation successful the unreality part astatine Alibaba, Morningstar expert Chelsey Tam said in September.

Cambricon, which is processing chips for AI grooming and inference, posted grounds profits successful the archetypal fractional of 2025 arsenic gross surged. The chipmaker, founded successful 2016, said gross roseate much than 4,000% year-on-year to 2.88 cardinal Chinese yuan ($402.7 million) and nett net deed a grounds 1.04 cardinal yuan.

"We presumption Cambricon arsenic the astir plausible victor successful China's AI accelerator market, which is inactive astatine its aboriginal signifier erstwhile compared to the US marketplace connected spot accessibility issue," Jamie Mills O'Brien, concern manager astatine concern radical Aberdeen, told CNBC by email.

"We spot aggregate roadblocks being digested successful adjacent 1-2 years, including fab maturity, lawsuit acceptance, and ecosystem formation, which is apt to acceptable Cambricon a 'good enough' alternate to Nvidia's downgraded chips successful China."

MetaX raised astir $600 cardinal successful its archetypal nationalist offering connected Wednesday, 5 years connected from its founding by erstwhile AMD enforcement Chen Weiliang.

Founded successful 2020 by a erstwhile wide manager of Nvidia's Chinese arm, Moore Threads is sometimes referred to arsenic "China's Nvidia."

It's acceptable to motorboat its latest GPU architecture astatine a Beijing developer league aboriginal this week, according to a study successful the South China Morning Post.

The institution said successful its listing that IPO proceeds were needed to accelerate halfway probe and improvement initiatives, including producing caller self-developed AI grooming and inference GPU chips. 

Enflame was founded by erstwhile AMD employees successful 2018 and designs chips for information centers focused connected AI grooming and processes.

Biren Technology, founded successful 2019, is designing high-performance GPUs and was approved for an IPO by the Chinese regulator connected Tuesday, according to reports from Reuters and the South China Morning Post.