Shanghai Enflame Technology, an artificial intelligence chipmaker backed by Tencent, registered extraordinarily strong demand in the online tranche of its Shanghai initial public offering, an exchange filing on Wednesday showed. Online investor orders totaled 6,109 times the number of shares originally set aside for that portion.
Faced with the surge in demand, Enflame reallocated 3.4 million shares from its offline tranche into the online sale. The company received orders from more than 7 million online investor accounts, and the filing disclosed a final winning rate for online applicants of 0.025%.
Enflame set its IPO price at 142.18 yuan per share and plans to sell 43 million shares on Shanghai’s STAR Market, targeting proceeds of roughly 6.1 billion yuan. The firm has said it will direct the funds toward developing and producing its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips as well as associated software and hardware.
Allocation changes and figures
Originally, Enflame had earmarked 6.89 million shares for online investors, representing 20% of the offering after the strategic placement. Following the shift of 3.4 million shares from the offline tranche, the online allocation rose to 10.33 million shares, which equals 30% of the post-strategic-placement offering. The offline tranche now holds the remaining 70%.
The filing noted that the company will announce the final results on Friday. Currency conversion given in the filing placed the U.S. dollar at 6.7216 Chinese yuan renminbi.
Market context and investor motivation
Investors appear to be betting on policy-driven demand for domestic alternatives to foreign suppliers. The filing referenced Beijing’s push to cultivate homegrown options amid measures taken by the U.S. government - under President Donald Trump - to tighten curbs on exports of advanced chips and chipmaking equipment to China. Market participants have interpreted that environment as a potential opportunity for Chinese AI chipmakers.
Enflame is often mentioned among China’s emerging AI chip startups as one of the so-called "four little GPU dragons." The other three firms identified in that grouping are Moore Threads Technology, MetaX Integrated Circuits and Shanghai Biren Technology, which the filing said have already sold shares publicly over the last year.
Company profile
Founded eight years ago, Enflame has not yet reported a profit. Tencent is listed as one of the company’s major shareholders and is described in the filing as Enflame’s largest customer. Those relationships were noted alongside the company’s strategic ambitions to accelerate development of next-generation AI compute solutions.
The filing and allocations outlined above reflect investor demand dynamics in the subscription period but do not alter the company’s stated use of proceeds or its IPO pricing. The company and underwriters will publish the allocation results as scheduled on Friday.