Moore Threads was founded in 2020 by former Nvidia China executives, counts heavyweights such as Tencent and ByteDance among its early backers and has positioned itself as a domestic alternative to the Western GPU makers, developing architectures aimed at gaming and increasingly at AI workloads.
Moore Threads, the Beijing-based GPU designer commonly referred to as “China’s Nvidia“, undertook one of the most dramatic market debuts of the year as investors piled into the initial public offering. The share price of the company rocketed in the first day of trading after it raised around ¥8 billion, or approximately $1.1–1.2 billion, on Shanghai’s STAR Market in a signal of frenzied demand for domestic chips amid lingering US export controls.
The listing – which analysts described as a referendum on China‘s ambitions to cut reliance on foreign semiconductors – saw retail demand surge to extraordinary levels. Retail subscriptions were reported to be thousands of times oversubscribed, producing a tiny final allocation rate for ordinary investors and setting in concrete the IPO’s position as one of the hottest of 2025. That appetite was powered by hopes that local GPU specialists can capture a piece of the booming AI-and-gaming chip market left vulnerable by sanctions on foreign suppliers.
Moves on the trading floor were simply jaw-dropping: different outlets reported variegated and sensational intraday gains-figures cited range from a 425% leap to even larger multiples-revealing the volatility of thinly traded debut stocks and the difficulty of pinning down a single “official” number in the immediate wake of a blockbuster float. Whatever the exact percentage, the scale of the rally forced investors and regulators alike to take notice: China’s onshore markets are ready to reward firms that promise to underpin national tech self-sufficiency.
Why the mania? The backstory is straightforward. Moore Threads was founded in 2020 by former Nvidia China executives, counts heavyweights such as Tencent and ByteDance among its early backers and has positioned itself as a domestic alternative to the Western GPU makers, developing architectures aimed at gaming and increasingly at AI workloads. Against the backdrop of US export curbs that have limited Nvidia’s full access to China, investors see Moore Threads as a rare opportunity to buy into a homegrown GPU story.
Yet the company’s fundamentals invite a more cautious reading. Moore Threads has invested heavily in research and development and, to date, remains loss-making-a common trait among early-stage semiconductor challengers. The firm has also contended with supply-chain disruption following US measures that constrained its access to advanced foundry partners, prompting a shift to domestic chipmakers with less advanced process technology. Such structural headwinds could limit near-term performance even as investor fervour pushes valuations higher.
The Moore Threads listing is both a triumph and a test for Chinese markets. Regulators have indicated their willingness to fast-track strategic technology listings and to loosen certain profitability gates for firms they consider important to national goals. But extremely sharp first-day rallies raise familiar concerns about retail speculation and the gap between headline valuations and realistic earnings trajectories. Policymakers will be watching whether euphoria translates into sustained research investment and commercial traction.
International investors will be parsing the wider implications, too. A successful domestic GPU ecosystem would reduce China’s reliance on foreign suppliers for the hardware backbone of AI development. That strategic shift has geopolitical resonance, too – possibly prompting fresh rounds of policy responses and competitive manoeuvres from overseas chipmakers and their backers. Whether Moore Threads proves a durable contender, or simply a colourful one-day story, depends on execution: product performance, supply-chain resilience, and the pace at which customers adopt its chips.
In short, Moore Threads’ IPO debut was a headline-making event that reshaped perceptions of China’s semiconductor landscape overnight. The rally crystallized investor hopes for a domestic GPU champion; it also amplified questions about valuation, profitability, and the long road from prototype to mass adoption. For now, the market has pronounced its verdict — enthusiastic and emphatic — but the company must now prove it can convert capital and hype into sustained technological and commercial success.
