Tencent-Backed Chipmaker Enflame Soars 206% in Shanghai IPO, Completing China's 'Four Little Dragons'

Shanghai Enflame Technology, an Nvidia rival backed by Tencent, closed its Shanghai Star Market debut up 179% from its IPO price, with shares peaking at 475 yuan intraday. The listing values the company at roughly $25.5 billion and raised $911 million, as investor demand for domestic AI chip alternatives to Nvidia stayed red-hot.

Enflame's 2025 revenue rose to 990 million yuan from 722 million yuan a year earlier, though the company still posted a net loss of 1.16 billion yuan. Tencent, which owns a 20% stake, accounted for 84% of that revenue and remains Enflame's largest customer. Co-founders Zhao Lidong and Zhang Yalin, both former AMD engineers, each became billionaires several times over on paper.

The debut completes the public listings of China's so-called "four little dragons" of AI chipmaking — Enflame, Moore Threads, MetaX and Biren — all racing to build homegrown alternatives to Nvidia amid US export restrictions. Enflame said it will use the IPO proceeds to develop its fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips.