MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai, a Chinese graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer, surged on its first day of trading amid expectations for China's semiconductor and artificial intelligence self-reliance.
MetaX shares closed at 829.9 yuan on Thursday, up 693% from their initial public offering price of 104.66 yuan on the Shanghai STAR Market, according to the South China Morning Post and other Hong Kong media outlets. The stock opened 569% above its IPO price and rose as much as 755% during the session. The gain was the third-largest first-day performance among companies that listed on mainland Chinese exchanges this year.
MetaX raised 4.2 billion yuan ($831 million) through the IPO, and the first-day surge was the best debut in the past decade among Chinese IPOs sized between $500 million and $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.
The strong performance follows Moore Threads, another Chinese GPU maker that jumped 425% on its January 5 listing debut. Retail investor subscriptions for MetaX were 2,986 times the allocated shares, compared with 2,751 times for Moore Threads.
The SCMP attributed MetaX's surge to investor enthusiasm for China's goal of replacing foreign GPUs needed for AI services with domestically produced chips. The investment fervor persisted despite the U.S. government recently easing some export restrictions on Nvidia products, the report noted.
"MetaX is one of the leaders in China's high-performance GPU manufacturing industry," said Li Hui, an analyst at Huajin Securities. "It is expected to fully benefit from domestic substitution."
