Enflame, counted as one of China's "four little dragons of graphics processing units (GPUs)," surged 179% on its first day of trading.
According to China's portal Baidu on the 11th, Enflame's share price on its first day on the STAR Market (Ke Chuang Ban, the sci-tech innovation board) spiked as much as 234% in early trading to 475 yuan from the offer price of 142.18 yuan.
It later gave back part of the gains and closed at 397 yuan, up 179.22% from the offer price. Its market capitalization at the close was 170.9 billion yuan (about 34.2 trillion won).
Enflame's listing came as corporations, amid China's push for semiconductor self-reliance and strength, are turning to the stock market to raise capital.
Through this initial public offering (IPO), Enflame issued 43.04 million new shares and raised 6.12 billion yuan (about 12.0 trillion won). This implies a corporate valuation of 61.2 billion yuan (about 12.2 trillion won).
Researcher Li Hui at Huaxin Securities and others cited as attractive that Enflame is a leading cloud artificial intelligence (AI) chip manufacturer in China.
They also noted that Chinese conglomerate Tencent is a major shareholder and client, holding 17.95% equity in Enflame. Last year, 83.79% of Enflame's total revenue came from Tencent.
Enflame's net loss narrowed from 1.51 billion yuan (about 302.2 billion won) in 2024 to 1.16 billion yuan (about 232.2 billion won) last year, but it is still in the red. A net loss of up to 860 million yuan (about 172.1 billion won) is expected in the first to third quarters of this year.
Enflame expects to reach break-even this year or next.
Meanwhile, in China, Enflame, Moore Threads, Biren Technology, and MetaX Integrated Circuits are grouped as the four little dragons of GPUs. Adding Iluvatar CoreX, they are also called the "five little tigers of China's AI chips." Enflame was the last among the four little dragons of GPUs to debut on the stock market.
The share prices of China's AI chip corporations that previously went public soared early after listing and then saw sharp corrections. According to Reuters and Bloomberg News, Moore Threads' stock is down more than 60% from its peak.