Investing in Moore Threads with a 7-fold floating profit, why does he dare to make a heavy bet? TuoFeng Chairman Lu Chunlin: Conducted tracking research for 6 months, focusing on three aspects

On the banks of the Min River in Fuzhou, Lu Chunlin brewed a pot of cinnamon tea. The chairman of Fuzhou Tuofeng Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tuofeng) appeared both relaxed and sharp.

Behind this is Lu Chunlin's heavy bet during the financing process of Moore Threads (SH688795, stock price 600.5 yuan, market value 282.3 billion yuan).

"We reached a consensus immediately, with no votes against. Because we had previously invested in related fields, we became increasingly clear. Moreover, the success of Cambrian Technologies made us recognize this direction." Lu Chunlin recalled the team's investment decision in Moore Threads. Based on the closing price on December 5, Tuofeng's investment in Moore Threads has seen a floating profit of over 700%.

Outside, traffic was bustling, while Lu Chunlin's mind was filled with a billion-yuan value map of China's semiconductor landscape. If Cambrian Technologies (SH688256, stock price 1355 yuan, market value 571.4 billion yuan) brought him into the spotlight, then the listing of Moore Threads has brought this investment institution hidden in Fujian to the surface.

As an important shareholder of Moore Threads, Lu Chunlin not only hit the "unicorn" of China's GPU (graphics processing unit) sector but also invested in several semiconductor powerhouses, including MuXi Integrated Circuit (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as MuXi) and Beijing Qingwei Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qingwei Intelligent).

This is a gamble about technological faith and the survival evolution of local Chinese capital in the "neck-choking" era.

Beginning with Cambrian: The Transformation from "Financial Investment" to "Industrial Capital"

According to its official website, Tuofeng is a fully market-oriented, professional, and standardized private equity investment fund management company.

"If you are just wealthy, you can't even get your foot in the door in the semiconductor circle," Lu Chunlin said.

Rewind to 2018. At that time, the Chinese venture capital circle had peaked in internet dividends, and hard technology was just beginning to sprout. Lu Chunlin and his team faced a severe question: How can a private equity institution from Fujian survive in a capital market dominated by giants?

"My investment career began in the late 1990s when the Chinese capital market was in its infancy. In the early days, I mainly engaged in securities analysis and asset management, accumulating rich market experience at Huaxia Securities and what is now CITIC Securities. But what truly made me decide to focus on the semiconductor field was the macro trends and micro insights after 2010. In the early years, I was involved in financial capital, doing work more on the investment banking side. But after doing it for over a decade, I found the path becoming narrower." Lu Chunlin recalled.

The "narrow" he referred to stems from the drastic changes in the issuance system of the Chinese capital market. From the earliest "quota system" to the "channel system," and now to the "registration system," especially with the introduction of the "fifth set of standards" for unprofitable technology companies on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, the rules of the game have completely changed "In the past, looking at financial statements, making bets, and engaging in IPO arbitrage worked, but it doesn't apply in the era of hard technology," summarized Lu Chunlin.

Tuofeng's transformation cut into the cradle of the "national team"—the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Computing Technology, CAS). Through the establishment of a joint venture fund, the Turing Luoyang Investment Management Center (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as Turing Luoyang) with the Institute of Computing Technology, Lu Chunlin obtained a "ticket" to enter China's top hard technology circle.

"In 2015, we established a strategic partnership with the Institute of Computing Technology. The Institute is the cradle of computing technology in China, with a profound research foundation. Through this cooperation, we came into contact with the Cambrian project—at that time, it was just a laboratory result. The Cambrian team demonstrated the disruptive potential of AI chips, with its Shiyuan series chips aimed at breaking the monopoly of NVIDIA and AMD. I was moved by their vision but also saw the challenges: the chip R&D cycle is long, investment is large, and risks are high. However, the research support from the CAS combined with our capital perspective made us believe that through ecological investment, we could reduce risks and accelerate industrialization," said Lu Chunlin.

The prospectus of Cambrian shows that Turing Luoyang, in which Tuofeng holds shares, participated in Cambrian's capital increase twice, in July 2018 and January 2019.

"I think investing in Cambrian is partly luck, because we have a deep respect for the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Our judgment on the technological path and national strategic needs is based on this respect, so investing in Cambrian is more about luck," said Lu Chunlin.

Lu Chunlin is clear that "luck," if not transformed into a systematic approach, will soon be exhausted. Therefore, when the second wave of domestic GPU startups, such as Moore Threads and Muxi, emerged, Lu Chunlin was no longer just a financial investor but an "industrial capital" player entering the game with resources.

Heavy Investment in "China's NVIDIA": Six Months of Tracking Research

In the prospectus of Moore Threads, there are two shareholders related to Tuofeng: Fujian Jipi You Technology Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as Fujian Tuofeng) and Peixian Qianyao Xing Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as Peixian Qianyao).

Lu Chunlin confirmed to reporters that Tuofeng's investment path in Moore Threads was not a solo operation. "The core shareholder of Shanghai Zhushen Consulting Management Co., Ltd., behind Peixian Qianyao, Chen Bolin, is a partner of Tuofeng," Lu Chunlin stated.

Chen Bolin is also from Fujian. This trust bond based on geography and kinship has allowed Fujian capital to exhibit astonishing explosive power in the capital market.

"My personal collaboration with Mr. Chen Bolin also played a key role. Mr. Chen Bolin is a well-known investor and a partner of Tuofeng. He has early laid out multiple semiconductor projects through Shanghai Zhushen Capital. His vision and resources helped us position ourselves in star enterprises like Moore Threads. For example, in 2022, Mr. Chen Bolin introduced the Moore Threads team, which had just been established, but the team had a strong background (core members from NVIDIA) and a clear technological path (fully functional GPU) "We made quick decisions and participated in the subsequent rounds of investment," said Lu Chunlin.

Lu Chunlin revealed that Tuofeng conducted a six-month follow-up research on Moore Threads, focusing on three aspects: First, in terms of technical architecture, Moore Threads' "meta-computing platform" emphasizes hardware-software collaboration, supports graphics rendering and AI computing, and is compatible with mainstream frameworks such as TensorFlow (Google's end-to-end open-source machine learning platform) and PyTorch (Facebook's open-source deep learning framework). This is different from pure hardware companies and is more adaptable to the ecosystem. Second, regarding market timing, in 2023, the U.S. upgraded chip controls, leading to an explosion in domestic GPU demand. Moore Threads' products can be used in data centers, cloud gaming, autonomous driving, and other fields, with a huge market space. Third, in terms of team capability, founder Mr. Zhang Jianzhong has 20 years of GPU experience, and the team has led the mass production of multiple chips.

"In 2023, during the difficult financing phase for Moore Threads, we participated in the B+ round investment of 200 million yuan; in 2024, we added 180 million yuan in the Pre-IPO round," Lu Chunlin stated.

In addition to investment, Tuofeng also provided empowerment.

"What industrial capital does is to empower enterprises," Lu Chunlin recounted a detail to reporters. As a chip design company, Moore Threads has a huge demand for supporting components and has extremely high quality requirements. Lu Chunlin keenly discovered that one of the suppliers of an international GPU giant happened to be in his resource pool.

"I told Zhang Jianzhong that the company used by the international GPU giant has very stable quality. I also went to this company and said that Moore Threads is the Nvidia of China, with unlimited potential."

With Lu Chunlin's mediation, both parties not only established business cooperation but also helped Moore Threads attract shareholders.

According to Moore Threads' prospectus, as of the pre-listing date, Fujian Tuofeng subscribed to the newly registered capital of Moore Limited at a price of 200 million yuan in October 2023, and continued to hold a large number of shares in subsequent shareholding reform and capital increase, holding 5,093,424 shares before the issuance, with a shareholding ratio of 1.27%. In addition, Peixian Qianyao, closely related to Tuofeng, ranked among the top ten shareholders, with a shareholding ratio as high as 4.25%.

As of the close on December 5, Fujian Tuofeng's shareholding in Moore Threads had reached a market value of 3.06 billion yuan, which means that Tuofeng's investment return rate has already reached 705%.

Semiconductor Investment Landscape: Seeking Certainty of Billion-Yuan Valuation Amidst "Choke Point" Dilemmas

Lu Chunlin believes that Tuofeng is positioned as an "ecological industrial investment fund," which is fundamentally different from traditional financial investments. Traditional investments often focus on financial indicators and short-term returns, pursuing quick exits; whereas Tuofeng's ecological approach emphasizes "value co-creation" and "long-term companionship."

"As industrial capital, we understand that in addition to integrating resources, the leader must keep up with the pace; if they fall behind, they will be marginalized. So there will be anxiety. The technology industry has a very strong talent attribute, unlike real estate, which is capital-intensive. At that time, we continuously shared with entrepreneurs that besides adding resources and investing money, we also hoped they would have a high sense of recognition for securitization and strategic awareness "Lu Chunlin said.

At the entrance of TuoFeng's office, there are introductions to its investments in multiple companies. In addition to Cambricon and Moore Threads, there are also several companies such as MuXi and QingWei Intelligent. "Why invest in Moore Threads and also in MuXi? Even invest in QingWei Intelligent?" In response to reporters' questions, Lu Chunlin provided his "horse racing logic."

"Cambricon is an AI chip (NPU, or neural network processor), Moore Threads is a fully functional GPU, and MuXi also has its own focus. Just like NVIDIA, although powerful, cannot cover all scenarios," Lu Chunlin analyzed. "The Chinese market is too large; it is impossible to rely on a single company to solve the 'bottleneck' problem. As long as each can excel in their respective niche tracks (inference, training, vehicle end, edge), there is a chance to succeed."

Behind this "circular investment" is Lu Chunlin's profound understanding of the industry chain. Lu Chunlin introduced that TuoFeng is conducting a comprehensive layout along the industrial chain, from chip design (Cambricon, Moore Threads) to hardware devices (printed circuit boards, optical modules), and to future AI vertical applications.

In MuXi's prospectus, TuoFeng's presence can also be found. Zhenghe Qiyuan (Fuzhou Gulou) Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) holds 224,300 shares of MuXi, accounting for 0.06%.

"Although there is a lot of market capital now, if you do not delve deeply, you won't even be able to grab a share of many star projects," Lu Chunlin lamented. "This is why we emphasize 'empowerment.' You need to prove that you can bring value to the enterprise beyond just money."

In addition to the aforementioned investments, TuoFeng has also invested in Zhongke Wuxi and Zhongke Haiwei.

Lu Chunlin revealed that currently, TuoFeng's semiconductor investment logic includes three aspects: first is technology coverage, from cloud (Cambricon) to edge (QingWei Intelligent), and then to terminal (Zhongke Wuxi), forming a complete computing power chain; second is ecological linkage, all enterprises can share resources through TuoFeng's investment ecological network, achieving truly healthy competition and cooperation; third is risk management, diversified investments reduce the risk of failure of a single technology. For example, reconfigurable chips (QingWei Intelligent) may become a breakthrough point in the post-Moore's Law era.

This Fujian investor is trying to prove with "real money" that in China, hard technology is still the antidote to cross cycles. And for TuoFeng, the puzzle of their trillion-dollar territory may have just completed half.

In addition, Lu Chunlin believes that the current shortcomings in the semiconductor industry also present important investment opportunities. "Our supply chain needs to be replaced, including wafers, equipment, photolithography machines, etc., all of which are opportunities. I believe that in 5 to 10 years, a Chinese supply chain system will definitely be formed. In other words, these 5 to 10 years are also a golden period for investment."

Risk warning and disclaimer

The market has risks, and investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not consider individual users' specific investment goals, financial conditions, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article align with their specific circumstances Based on this investment, the responsibility lies with the investor