The ChiNext board is set to welcome its first unprofitable listed company. On January 23, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued its approval for the initial public offering registration of Shenzhen Dapu Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (Dapu Micro), marking the first IPO registration approval for an unprofitable company on the ChiNext board. It is worth noting that against the backdrop of an overall acceleration in A-share IPO reviews, Dapu Micro, as the first company to apply under the ChiNext board's new unprofitable listing standards, had a relatively smooth IPO review process, yet its total timeline is not particularly short compared to other A-share IPO candidates. Dapu Micro's application was accepted on June 27, 2025, it passed the listing committee review on December 25, 2025, and now with this registration approval, the entire review process lasted 207 days. Moore Threads and Muxi Shares, whose applications were accepted just three days after Dapu Micro's, have already successfully listed. Among the 11 companies that received CSRC approval letters since January this year, most had a waiting period from application acceptance to registration approval of less than eight months; Goode Materials, which also applied for a ChiNext listing, took only 195 days from acceptance to registration approval.
Dapu Micro's registration has taken effect. According to its official website, Dapu Micro was founded in 2016 and is primarily engaged in the R&D and sales of data center enterprise-grade SSD products. It is a leading semiconductor storage product provider, one of the very few domestically with full-stack in-house R&D capabilities for enterprise-grade SSDs—covering "controller chips + firmware algorithms + modules"—and achieving mass production. Currently, Dapu Micro's products are mainly used in internet services, cloud computing, telecom operators, AI model training and inference, among other areas. Its downstream clients and end-users cover leading domestic internet companies, server manufacturers, the three major telecom operators, and well-known financial and power enterprises. The company has already achieved bulk sales to foreign internet companies, significantly advancing the localization process for enterprise-grade SSDs. According to the latest IDC data, in the domestic enterprise-grade SSD market, Dapu Micro ranks fourth in shipment volume with a market share of 6.4%, gradually expanding its localization footprint. On June 18, 2025, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing officially announced the "1+6" policy measures for the STAR Market at the Lujiazui Forum, declaring the formal activation of the "third set of standards" on the ChiNext board, after which Dapu Micro became the "first to taste the crab." As a rare investment target in the enterprise-grade SSD sector, Dapu Micro's equity structure includes a voting rights差异 arrangement, and it has chosen the listing standard of "expected market capitalization not less than RMB 5 billion, with revenue in the most recent year not less than RMB 500 million." Financial data shows that from 2022 to 2024, Dapu Micro achieved operating revenues of RMB 557 million, RMB 519 million, and RMB 962 million, respectively, with net profits of -RMB 534 million, -RMB 617 million, and -RMB 191 million, respectively. In 2024, the company's core business revenue grew 88.73% year-on-year, its gross margin turned positive, losses narrowed significantly, and it is projected to potentially achieve profitability by 2026. Dapu Micro has strong R&D attributes and high R&D investment intensity—its cumulative R&D expenses over the past three years were RMB 737 million, accounting for 36.15% of its cumulative operating revenue. Furthermore, the company is a national-level "Little Giant" enterprise recognized for specializing in niche sectors. As of the end of 2024, it held 156 invention patents and had undertaken 2 national-level and 4 provincial/municipal-level major scientific research projects. For this IPO, Dapu Micro plans to raise approximately RMB 1.878 billion, which will be primarily allocated towards the R&D and industrialization of next-generation controller chips and enterprise-grade SSDs, the construction of a mass production testing base for enterprise-grade SSD modules, and supplementing working capital. "With the rapid development of global information technology, the country has set higher requirements for the self-sufficiency and controllability of core components in digital information infrastructure. China is the world's second-largest enterprise-grade SSD market, but the majority market share is still held by foreign manufacturers. Therefore, the need to build a self-sufficient industrial ecosystem for domestic enterprise-grade SSDs is increasingly urgent; this concerns not only supply chain security but is also a key factor in driving innovation and development in the domestic storage industry," commented a senior industry insider in South China. In their view, supporting leading companies to increase R&D investment, promote technological innovation, and achieve self-sufficiency in core components can enhance the competitiveness of domestic industries and also help safeguard the security and sustainable development of the national information industry.
The unprofitable listing standards for the ChiNext board have been implemented. With the implementation of the ChiNext board's unprofitable listing standards, more qualified technology innovation companies are expected to gain access to the A-share capital market. Following Dapu Micro, the ChiNext IPO application of chip manufacturer Yuexin Semiconductor (Yuexin) was accepted on December 19, 2025. The company plans to raise RMB 7.5 billion, with GF SECURITIES as its sponsor. According to its prospectus, Yuexin Semiconductor is the first mass-producing 12-inch wafer manufacturer cultivated independently within Guangdong Province, focusing on analog chip manufacturing and providing crucial capacity support for the national integrated circuit industry strategic layout. Currently, the company has become one of the leading wafer foundries globally for capacitive fingerprint recognition chips by shipment volume and one of the few domestic wafer foundries with large-scale mass production capability for silicon-based CMOS ultrasonic fingerprint recognition chips. Its mobile phone power management chips are already supplied to two of the world's top three independent mobile phone chip companies. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, Yuexin Semiconductor's operating revenues were RMB 1.545 billion, RMB 1.044 billion, RMB 1.681 billion, and RMB 1.053 billion, respectively, totaling RMB 5.323 billion. During the same period, the company's net profit attributable to parents recorded losses of RMB 1.043 billion, RMB 1.917 billion, RMB 2.253 billion, and RMB 1.201 billion, respectively. Yuexin Semiconductor anticipates that the earliest it could achieve overall profitability is in 2029. Since its establishment, Yuexin Semiconductor has maintained substantial R&D investment, with R&D expenses accounting for a high proportion of operating revenue. During the reporting periods, its R&D expenditures were RMB 601 million, RMB 605 million, RMB 446 million, and RMB 186 million, representing 38.92%, 58%, 26.50%, and 17.62% of total revenue, respectively. As of June 30, 2025, the company had obtained 681 authorized patents (including foreign patents), of which 312 are invention patents. Recently, DOBOT (2432.HK), dubbed the "first collaborative robot stock," announced plans to initiate an initial public offering of Renminbi ordinary shares and list on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. DOBOT has already completed its IPO tutoring filing with the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau, with Guotai Haitong serving as the tutoring institution. Currently, DOBOT has not yet achieved profitability. In 2024, it reported revenue of RMB 374 million, a year-on-year increase of 30.3%, but its net profit attributable to parents remained deeply in the red at a loss of RMB 95.36 million, narrowing only 7.6% year-on-year. In the first half of 2025, the company's revenue grew 27.08% year-on-year to RMB 153 million, and its net profit attributable to parents loss narrowed to RMB 40.87 million. Market observers point out that compared to traditional enterprises, technology innovation companies require longer-term capital investment support in their early development stages. Broadening financing channels for high-quality, unprofitable innovative companies and providing efficient direct financing platforms can help overcome early-stage R&D funding bottlenecks, incentivize increased R&D investment and intensified technological breakthroughs, thereby supporting China's efforts to gain an advantage in global technological competition and achieve high-level technological self-reliance and strength.
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