Enflame Technology raised 6.12 billion yuan, about $911 million, in a Shanghai STAR Market listing priced at 142.18 yuan a share, valuing the company near 61 billion yuan. The retail tranche drew orders of roughly 4,073 times the shares on offer, from about seven million individual investors, and the allocation rate for those buyers came out near 0.025 per cent, among the lowest on the mainland this year. Enflame is among the last of China’s closely watched AI chip startups to go public.
The company has not turned a profit in eight years. Revenue rose from 301 million yuan in 2023 to 990 million yuan in 2025, while net losses narrowed from 1.7 billion yuan to 1.2 billion yuan, and it expects to break even in 2026 or 2027. Tencent is the largest shareholder, holding about 20 per cent with related parties, and it accounted for 83.8 per cent of revenue last year. The proceeds are earmarked for Enflame’s fifth and sixth generation chips.
The listing is priced on scarcity rather than results. Chinese buyers want a domestic alternative to Nvidia, whose sales into China have been throttled by export limits, and the STAR Market has rewarded that appetite. Rivals Moore Threads and MetaX trade near 160 times sales, against Enflame’s 62. A company that sells mostly to one buyer is being valued as a national champion.
The filing does not resolve the concentration. There is no stated picture of revenue if Tencent builds more of its own silicon or spreads its orders, no disclosed demand beyond it, and no detail on whether the next chips can be made at volume given the tooling limits Chinese foundries face. The demand is real. The customer base is one name.
