AI computing GPU manufacturer Shanghai TianShu ZhiXin Semiconductor has submitted its application and passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with a fundraising scale potentially reaching 300 million USD
<h4>Key Points:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Following its competitor BIREN TECH, TianShu ZhiXin has passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, seizing investors' growing interest in GPU stocks.</li>
<li>This AI chip company saw a 64% year-on-year revenue growth in the first half of this year, but its losses during the period were nearly double its revenue.</li>
</ul>
Chen Zhu
Whether referred to as the &#34;chip frenzy&#34; or the &#34;chip competition,&#34; China's AI chip industry is experiencing its own moment of glory, and this wave of enthusiasm is somewhat riding on the halo of global chip giant NVIDIA. NVIDIA had long been relatively unknown until it suddenly exploded in recent years, becoming the highest-valued company in the world.
This month, two local AI chip companies quickly became some of the hottest stocks in China's A-share market with their impressive market debuts. Moore Threads (688795.SH) saw its stock price soar over 400% on its first day of trading in Shanghai; two weeks later, its competitor MuXi (688802.SH) achieved an even more astonishing increase of up to 700% upon its listing in Shanghai.
However, the story does not end here, as more competitors are gearing up to get a piece of the pie. In this wave, Shanghai TianShu ZhiXin Semiconductor Co., Ltd. has also entered the fray. The company submitted its initial public offering application for a Hong Kong listing last Friday and passed the listing hearing on the same day. TianShu ZhiXin's move came just two days after its competitor BIREN TECH submitted its first listing application for Hong Kong. Prior to this, search engine leader Baidu, which has been actively investing in autonomous driving technology in recent years, also announced this month that it is evaluating the spin-off of its main AI chip business, Kunlun, and considering a listing in Hong Kong.
News about TianShu ZhiXin's plans to list in Hong Kong had circulated as early as August this year, with reports indicating a fundraising target of approximately 300 million USD.
The listing performances of Moore Threads and MuXi highlight the high recognition of the general GPU narrative in China's capital market. TianShu ZhiXin and BIREN TECH are betting on whether this investment enthusiasm can continue in the more internationally structured Hong Kong market. The rapid rise in the Shanghai market actually reflects investors' early pricing of Beijing's push for self-controllable policies in AI chips; at the same time, international chip giants like NVIDIA are gradually reducing their product supply to the Chinese market due to increased export restrictions.
However, before investors rush in, they still need to weigh a series of risks. These risks include not only the challenges posed by U.S. sanctions but also significant technological gaps. For most newly established companies that have been around for less than ten years, this will limit their ability to capture market share.
Setting aside the aforementioned issues for now, let's return to Shanghai TianShu ZhiXin itself. As a microcosm of this new wave of AI chip companies, its actual situation and sales scale still show a considerable gap from the grand imagination projected onto it by the outside world
Tianshu Zhixin was established in 2015 by Li Yunpeng, who previously served as the R&amp;D director at the American database giant Oracle. The management team also includes Zheng Jinshan, a former researcher at the chip giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). This management team, with a background in large American tech companies, is quite common among AI chip startups in China. For example, Muxi was founded by several former AMD veterans, while Moore Threads was established by a former Nvidia executive.
Similar to its peers, Tianshu Zhixin focuses on designing GPU products for AI workloads, covering chips for training next-generation AI models and inference chips for model deployment. At the same time, like most of its peers, Tianshu Zhixin adopts a &#34;fabless&#34; model, outsourcing chip manufacturing to third-party foundries while concentrating its resources on chip design and market promotion.
<h4>Limited Scale</h4>
The listing documents show that Tianshu Zhixin is still a small enterprise in terms of sales scale, but its growth rate is quite rapid. The company's revenue is expected to reach 540 million yuan (approximately 76.6 million USD) in 2024, nearly double that of 289 million yuan in 2023. In the first half of this year, Tianshu Zhixin's revenue again grew by 64% year-on-year, reaching 324 million yuan.
Despite the impressive growth rate, the overall scale remains relatively small in absolute terms. In terms of actual shipments, as of June this year, Tianshu Zhixin has delivered only about 52,000 chips; in contrast, according to IDC data, Nvidia's shipments in the Chinese market alone are close to 2 million chips in 2024, highlighting a significant gap between the two.
Most of Tianshu Zhixin's Chinese competitors are also only minor players in the global AI chip landscape. Muxi's revenue in 2024 is projected to be 743 million yuan, while Moore Threads' revenue is even lower at only 438 million yuan, and BIREN TECH only reaches 337 million yuan.
This entire industry group is facing multiple challenges, with the core issue being the inability to obtain advanced chip manufacturing technology. The sanctions implemented by the U.S. at the end of 2024 effectively cut off cooperation between Chinese AI chip companies and the global leading foundry TSMC, which has long dominated the high-end chip manufacturing market.
After losing access to relevant channels, many companies have shifted their production capacity back to mainland China, relying on local foundries represented by SMIC, but this path is also fraught with difficulties. First, U.S. sanctions have limited SMIC's process capabilities to about 7 nanometers, which is several generations behind TSMC, which has already begun mass production of 2-nanometer chips. This means that even if companies like Tianshu Zhixin gradually catch up with their American peers in design capabilities, they will struggle to launch competitive upgraded products due to process limitations.
Moreover, due to the inability to acquire more advanced manufacturing equipment, SMIC is also limited in its 7-nanometer capacity, forcing Chinese chip companies to compete fiercely for limited production line slots. These precious capacity slots are often prioritized for large enterprises like Huawei, making it difficult for smaller companies to secure resources and forcing them to seek alternative paths
Under the circumstances of a small revenue base and high costs of chip design and manufacturing, it is not surprising that TianShu ZhiXin and its peers have not yet achieved profitability. In the first half of this year, TianShu ZhiXin recorded a net loss of 609 million yuan, nearly double its revenue during the same period.
For investors betting on Chinese GPU concept stocks, the potential upside in the future is very clear. The demand for AI chips in China is enormous and continues to expand. TianShu ZhiXin cited third-party research in its listing documents, predicting that by 2029, the market size of AI chips in China will reach 898.1 billion yuan, three times that of 217.5 billion yuan in 2024.
Domestic general-purpose GPU products are expected to account for over half of the market share by 2029, up from 17.4% last year and significantly higher than 8.3% in 2022. It is almost certain that Beijing will continue to support local GPU manufacturers through various means, including providing financial subsidies and creating relatively protected market space through policy measures.
However, while assessing the enormous upside potential, investors must also face the intense competition forming within the market. In addition to the companies mentioned earlier, TianShu ZhiXin and its peers also face stronger competitors, including Huawei, HanGuang Ji (688256.SH), HaiGuang Information (688041.SH), and other mid-tier chip companies

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Shanghai TianShu Intelligent Chip Semiconductor has passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plans to raise approximately $300 million. The company's revenue grew by 64% in the first half of this year, but its losses were nearly twice its revenue. TianShu Intelligent Chip submitted its listing application shortly after BIREN TECH, reflecting investors' interest in GPU stocks. China's AI chip industry is experiencing a highlight moment, with Moores Threads and MuXi performing outstandingly in the A-share market. TianShu Intelligent Chip is betting on the investment enthusiasm of the Hong Kong market

Hong Kong stocks chip trend enters the AI track, TianShu ZhiXin joins the battle