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Tencent Holdings-backed Shanghai Enflame Technology is looking to raise about 6.12 billion yuan ($911 million) through an initial public offering, as the final member of a group of four prominent Chinese artificial intelligence chipmakers turns to the stock market for funding. Tencent owns a 20% stake in Enflame and is also a major customer. The company has priced its offering on Shanghai’s technology-focused STAR Market at 142.18 yuan per share, according to an exchange filing on Monday. The IPO will involve around 43 million shares, equivalent to 10% of Enflame’s enlarged share capital after the listing. China’s accelerating investment in artificial intelligence is increasingly finding its way into the capital markets, with more technology companies seeking funds to increase production capacity and speed up product development. The fundraising trend covers the broader AI ecosystem, including chip designers, hardware manufacturers and AI model developers. Although Enflame’s IPO is smaller than some of the year’s major technology listings, such as CXMT Corp’s blockbuster offering, it adds to a growing pipeline of Chinese companies seeking to benefit from the country’s AI investment boom. The company develops AI accelerators designed for cloud computing and data-centre applications and is one of a relatively small number of startups helping China build a domestic alternative to overseas AI chip technology. Founded in 2018, Enflame is the last of China’s so-called “four little dragons” to enter the public markets. It follows Moore Threads Technology Co, Biren Technology Co and MetaX Integrated Circuits. The group has attracted significant investor attention. Moore Threads, for instance, surged 425% on its stock-market debut in December, helping strengthen enthusiasm for China’s emerging AI chip companies. Nvidia still accounted for about 55% of China’s AI accelerator shipments in 2025, highlighting the country’s continued dependence on foreign technology. Enflame, meanwhile, had an estimated market share of 1.7%, putting it among the leading domestic AI accelerator suppliers, analysts said. Enflame’s close ties with Tencent distinguish it from several of its domestic rivals. Revenue generated from Tencent accounted for 84% of Enflame’s total sales in 2025, compared with about 38% a year earlier. Tencent’s internet and cloud businesses provide Enflame with its principal commercial customer base. Its chips are deployed in large-scale data centres and support applications including chatbots, recommendation engines and generative artificial intelligence. The heavy reliance on Tencent, however, also highlights a key concentration risk for the company as it expands. Enflame has yet to achieve profitability, although its losses have been narrowing. The company reported a net loss of 1.2 billion yuan in 2025, compared with 1.5 billion yuan a year earlier. It expects to report a loss of roughly 600 million yuan for the first half of the year. Revenue growth, however, remains strong. Enflame expects first-half revenue to more than triple from a year earlier to between 10.6 billion yuan and 11.5 billion yuan. The company’s revenue expanded at a compound annual growth rate of more than 80% between 2023 and 2025, underscoring the rapid expansion of demand for its AI accelerator products. Catch all the Business News , Market News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates. Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.
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