Chinese AI chipmaker approved for STAR listing

Chinese AI chipmaker Enflame Technology won approval for a Shanghai STAR Market listing on Monday, meaning all four of China's best known domestic GPU startups are now pursuing public market financing as they seek to challenge United States' dominance in artificial intelligence computing.

The approval marks a milestone for China's so called "GPU four tigers" — Enflame, Moore Threads, MetaX, and Biren Technology — a group of venture-backed startups that emerged over the past several years as Beijing pushed to build a domestic AI semiconductor industry amid escalating US export restrictions.

The company plans to raise 6 billion yuan ($835 million) through the offering to fund development and commercialization of fifth and sixth generation AI chips, as well as software and hardware integration projects, according to its prospectus.

The company has developed five cloud AI chip products across four generations of architecture and built a product portfolio spanning AI processors, accelerator cards, computing clusters, and software platforms.

Its latest fourth generation product — the L600 training and inference accelerator module — has completed tape out and silicon verification, but has yet to enter large scale commercial production.