MetaX soars nearly 700% in debut as traders snap up second Chinese GPU maker to go public

MetaX Integrated Circuits soared connected its trading debut successful Shanghai arsenic investors piled into the 2nd Chinese shaper of graphics processing units (GPUs) to spell nationalist this period amid optimism astir China's propulsion for self-sufficiency successful semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

The shares of the Shanghai-based institution surged 693 per cent from the connection terms to 829.90 yuan astatine the adjacent connected Wednesday connected the technology-heavy Star Market, making the five-year-old institution the third-best performing debut connected the mainland's banal exchanges this year. They erstwhile surged by arsenic overmuch arsenic 755 per cent to an intraday precocious of 895 yuan aft opening 569 per cent higher than the connection terms of 104.66 yuan.

The frenzy for MetaX underscores investors' absorption to China's ambitions successful utilizing domestically made chips to regenerate imports for powering AI applications and services, adjacent aft the US authorities relaxed immoderate of the export restrictions connected Nvidia. Less than 2 weeks ago, Moore Threads Technology, a section rival of MetaX that has been dubbed "China's small Nvidia," soared 425 per cent connected its Shanghai trading debut.

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"The institution is 1 of the starring manufacturers of high-performance GPU products successful China," said Li Hui, an expert astatine Huajin Securities. "It's expected to afloat payment from the ongoing advancement connected the home substitution."

MetaX raised 4.2 cardinal yuan (US$596.3 million) from selling 40.1 cardinal shares successful its archetypal nationalist connection (IPO), ranking it the fifth-largest flotation connected the mainland this year, according to Bloomberg data. Moore's 8 cardinal yuan IPO was the 2nd largest, down the 18.2 cardinal yuan raised by Huadian New Energy Group.

MetaX was founded successful 2020 by 3 erstwhile AMD employees, with president and wide manager Chen Weiliang antecedently moving arsenic a elder manager of the US chipmaker. The institution said it would usage its IPO proceeds to money probe and improvement connected high-performance GPUs. It offers a scope of GPUs for AI inference, general-purpose computing and graphics rendering.

MetaX was founded successful 2020 by erstwhile AMD employees. Photo: Handout alt=MetaX was founded successful 2020 by erstwhile AMD employees. Photo: Handout>

The C600 chip, its flagship general-purpose processor, is expected to spell into wide accumulation soon aft a motorboat successful July, portion its next-generation C700 merchandise is inactive being developed.