Chinese chipmaker Enflame 4,073 times oversubscribed in Shanghai IPO amid Nvidia race

The last of China’s ‘four little dragons’ to go public has drawn millions of retail investors, despite odds of securing an allocation at less than 0.03 per cent

Enflame Technology , one of China’s leading AI chipmakers, has sparked a retail frenzy for its 6.12 billion yuan (US$910.9 million) initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai’s tech-heavy Star Market, underscoring growing investor appetite for home-grown alternatives to Nvidia.

The Tencent Holdings-backed chipmaker saw the retail portion of its IPO oversubscribed by 4,073 times, with about 7 million online investors alone submitting orders for 42.1 billion shares, according to its filing to the exchange on Wednesday.

The high demand amounted to an allocation rate for individual investors of just 0.025 per cent. That made it one of the lowest in mainland China this year alongside robotics maker Unitree Robotics, whose rate was just 0.018 per cent, or about one successful lot for every 5,500 applications.

Priced at 142.18 yuan (US$21.16) per share, Enflame expects to raise 6.12 billion yuan to fund the research, development and production of its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips.