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Chinese chipmaker Enflame 4,073 times oversubscribed in Shanghai IPO amid Nvidia race

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Ann Caoin ShanghaiPublished: 2:17pm, 3 Sep 2026

Enflame Technology, one of China’s leading AI chipmakers, has sparked a retail frenzy for its 6.12 billion yuan (US$910.9 million) initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai’s tech-heavy Star Market, underscoring growing investor appetite for home-grown alternatives to Nvidia.

The Tencent Holdings-backed chipmaker saw the retail portion of its IPO oversubscribed by 4,073 times, with about 7 million online investors alone submitting orders for 42.1 billion shares, according to its filing to the exchange on Wednesday.

The high demand amounted to an allocation rate for individual investors of just 0.025 per cent. That made it one of the lowest in mainland China this year alongside robotics maker Unitree Robotics, whose rate was just 0.018 per cent, or about one successful lot for every 5,500 applications.

The strong market response highlights Enflame’s role as a crucial player in Beijing’s accelerating push for semiconductor self-sufficiency. The Shanghai-based company – often dubbed one of China’s “four little dragons” in the AI chip sector alongside Moore Threads, Biren Technology and MetaX – is the last of the four firms to go public.The odds of securing Enflame shares are lower than MetaX’s 0.033 per cent and Moore Threads’ 0.036 per cent. Retail investors, meanwhile, are flooding the market, betting that Enflame will match the first-day pops of 693 per cent and 425 per cent achieved when its two rivals debuted in December.

Priced at 142.18 yuan (US$21.16) per share, Enflame expects to raise 6.12 billion yuan to fund the research, development and production of its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips.

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