Moore Threads returns to IPO funding trough to finance its GPU ambitions

The company is planning a Hong Kong listing, just nine months after its Shanghai trading debut, aiming to expand its financing capabilities during a period of rapid growth

Key Takeaways:

• Moore Threads has reportedly submitted a confidential application for a Hong Kong listing, planning to raise at least $1 billion
• The GPU maker’s revenue surged by 147% in the first half of the year, but it still requires major funds to sustain its cash-intensive operation

By Lee Shih Ta

China’s leading GPU makers, producing the “brains” that power AI, are transitioning from a phase of technological verification to large-scale commercialization, consuming billions of dollars in that process. In that race for funds to keep their business humming, Moore Threads Technology Co. Ltd. (688795.SH), one of the country’s major players, has reportedly submitted a confidential application for a Hong Kong IPO, with plans to raise a minimum of $1 billion.

The step is noteworthy because Moore Threads’ stock just debuted on the STAR Market in Shanghai last December, where it raised nearly 8 billion yuan ($1.19 billion). But apparently that’s just a quick fix for such a heavily cash-burning company, prompting it to eye raising a similar amount from Hong Kong’s more internationally focused investor pool.

Moore Threads is just one among a group of Chinese GPU makers hitting up the capital markets for funds lately. In the past year alone, MetaX (688802.SH), Biren Technology (6082.HK), Iluvatar CoreX (9903.HK) and Enflame Technology (688801.SH) have all gone public in Shanghai and Hong Kong. All are hoping to become the “Nvidia (NVDA.US) of China,” tapping booming demand for AI training and inference, coupled with domestic substitution by Chinese AI developers looking to wean themselves from foreign products.

Growing capital requirements

At the end of June, Moore Threads had already allocated nearly 5 billion yuan of the 7.58 billion yuan it raised from its Shanghai IPO, leaving about 2.73 billion yuan in a special account. A Hong Kong listing would help it tap the global capital market, providing greater financial flexibility for its subsequent R&D and commercialization efforts, as well as for potential M&A.

Capital requirements for GPU development typically ramp up when products enter large-scale commercialization. By that time, development of the next generation of chips has already begun, while the transition from single-card setups to clusters containing thousands of cards and inventory stocking all further add to the need for capital. Stock market investors seem more than happy to provide such funds, as reflected by an oversubscription rate of more than 6,100 times for Enflame’s STAR Market IPO last week that raised about 6.1 billion yuan for its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips.

Moore Threads recorded revenue of 1.74 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 147% year-on-year, exceeding the figure for all of 2025. Its gross profit rose 104% to 989 million yuan, while its net loss narrowed sharply to just 11.56 million yuan from 271 million yuan a year earlier. But after deducting non-recurring gains and losses, such as government subsidies and returns on financial assets, the company still posted a loss of 151 million yuan in the latest period. Commercialization of its MTT KUAE intelligent computing cluster product is accelerating, and its flagship product, the MTT S5000, has also achieved large-scale sales.

While Moore Threads’ revenue is growing quickly, so are its product development costs. Its R&D spending in the first half of the year reached 769 million yuan, equal to 44.3% of its revenue, bringing cumulative R&D spending since 2022 to nearly 5.9 billion yuan. Meantime, the company’s net cash outflow from operating activities stood at 2.17 billion yuan in the first half of the year, nearly double its 1.16 billion yuan outflow a year earlier, as it expanded its production scale and incurred growing procurement costs.

In such an environment, financing capabilities have become an integral part of what makes each GPU company competitive.

The industry has plenty of room for growth, as China has proposed increasing the supply of high-performance intelligent computing resources, building ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters, and cultivating an independently controllable software and hardware ecosystem under its “15th Five-Year Plan” that launched this year. The inclusion of such targets in the national development roadmap means the government often makes copious funds available to meet those goals through various channels.

From opportunity window to competition

As the market rapidly develops, the landscape is also rapidly changing. Reuters Breakingviews estimates that Nvidia’s share of China’s $90 billion AI semiconductor market has dropped from a near monopoly a few years ago to roughly 55% now. Domestic manufacturers such as Moore Threads, MetaX, Biren Tech, and Enflame are increasingly picking up more of the market.

The competition has also extended from chips into software, where Nvidia’s CUDA developer framework retains a significant advantage. By comparison, Moore Threads utilizes its Meta-computing Unified System Architecture (MUSA) software stack and related tools to reduce migration costs from CUDA programs. Its system supported more than 800,000 developers at the end of June, while achieving cluster deployments numbering 10,000 cards and more.

Investors are willing to pay high premiums for domestic GPU makers, evidenced by Enflame’s high 61.8 price-to-sales (P/S) ratio for its 2025 sales. By comparison, Nvidia was valued at a “lowly” 25.4 times for the same period. But those sky-high valuations are almost certain to come down as more domestic GPU manufacturers enter the public market, giving investors more choice.

Moore Threads’ stock surged for a period after its Shanghai listing, though the shares have corrected recently in tandem with the end of a lock-up period for the first batch of offline placement restricted shares. While the shares unlocked on Sept. 7 only accounted for about 5.5% of the company’s total share capital, they increased the tradeable float by roughly 85%, causing a major selloff over the next two trading days.

The growing supply of tradeable shares has also compelled investors to reevaluate the value of Moore Threads’ shares. A Hong Kong IPO will expand its investor base and add a new capital source for future funding and expansion, while also further testing appetite for the stock.

Moore Threads is currently in expansionary mode. But as more domestic GPU manufacturers enter the market, valuation support provided by the scarcity factor will quickly diminish. That means that factors like revenue growth, cash flow, product iteration, customer deployment, and software ecosystems will become increasingly important as investors seek to gauge each company’s true worth.

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