China's domestic GPU sector witnessed another explosive IPO debut as Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. (688801.SH) surged nearly 180% on its first day of trading on the STAR Market. Priced at 142.18 yuan per share, the stock opened at 410 yuan, a jump of roughly 188%, before touching an intraday high of 475 yuan — up over 234% from the offer price. That spike briefly pushed the company's market capitalization beyond 200 billion yuan, compared with approximately 612 billion yuan implied at the IPO pricing. By the closing bell, gains had moderated to 179.22%, with shares settling at 397 yuan.
Despite the blockbuster debut, enthusiasm has cooled compared with the reception given to the sector's first two listed names. In December, Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. (688795.SH) rocketed 469% on its first day, while Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (688802.SH) went even further, surging over 690% at its debut. Notably, the broader domestic GPU complex failed to join in the celebration on the same day. Shares of Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd., Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and BIREN TECH (6082.HK) all closed lower, and the "Three Little Dragons" have since retreated 50% to 60% from their post-IPO peaks.
The stark contrast between the IPO pop and the subsequent pullback sends a clear signal: investors once bought into the "domestic GPU" narrative as a collective bet, with the whole sector moving in tandem. Now, the market is beginning to price each of the "GPU Big Four" individually based on fundamentals. The key questions are: who has actually turned chips into real revenue? Who is closest to profitability? And who is best positioned to emerge as the long-term winner?
Which Company Is Really Selling Its Chips?
For domestic GPU makers, the first and most important question isn't about technical specifications — it's about who has converted chip sales into actual revenue. Based on first-half 2026 financial reports, the four companies now show clear divergence in scale. Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. leads in revenue, posting 1.736 billion yuan in H1 2026, a 147.42% year-on-year increase that already exceeds its full-year 2025 revenue of 1.506 billion yuan. Cloud intelligent computing products contributed 1.693 billion yuan, about 97.5% of total revenue, driven by customer adoption of its MTT S5000 AI chips and the Kuae intelligent computing cluster.
Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. follows closely with H1 revenue of 1.324 billion yuan, up 44.67% year-on-year, on significantly higher GPU shipment volumes. BIREN TECH presents a different picture: its H1 revenue of 1.236 billion yuan was just slightly below Metax's, but the 1997.6% year-on-year growth rate is the fastest among the four. Intelligent computing solutions accounted for 1.168 billion yuan, roughly 94.5% of total revenue, with the company noting that its "Bili" series products have been deployed across internet companies, AI model developers, data centers, and telecom operators.
Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. currently has the smallest revenue base at 1.12 billion yuan for H1 2026, though it grew 279% year-on-year as shipments accelerated downstream. The company's IPO prospectus projects Q3 2026 revenue of 2.3 billion to 3 billion yuan, implying year-on-year growth of 326% to 455%. If realized, this would mark a clear inflection point in revenue acceleration — which helps explain today's premium valuation. The market is pricing not what Enflame has sold in the past, but rather its trajectory toward accelerated revenue delivery.
Selling more is only the first hurdle, though. Revenue growth doesn't necessarily mean the business model is mature. The more critical question is whether those chips are actually profitable.
Who Is Closest to Profitability?
Profitability is where the four companies truly diverge. Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. narrowed its net loss attributable to shareholders to 11.56 million yuan in H1 2026, a 95.73% improvement year-on-year, while its non-GAAP net loss also contracted to 151 million yuan. Gross margin reached 56.95%, with gross profit of 989 million yuan, up 103.78%. In essence, Moore Threads is approaching the breakeven threshold for core operations, though cash flow remains a factor worth monitoring.
Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. shows the most polished bottom line on a GAAP basis, posting a net profit attributable to shareholders of 612 million yuan in H1 2026, achieving a turnaround. But drilling into the numbers reveals a different story: non-GAAP net profit still showed a loss of 48.86 million yuan, while fair value gains on trading financial assets reached approximately 887 million yuan — exceeding total profit for the period. The company itself flagged that such gains are not sustainable. So while Metax is the first to show accounting profitability, it is not yet profitable from core operations.
BIREN TECH occupies a third position. Its H1 2026 revenue grew rapidly and gross margin improved to 42.7%, but the company still posted a net loss of 377 million yuan attributable to shareholders, with adjusted net losses at 337 million yuan. BIREN is quickly scaling revenue but remains some distance from true profitability. Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. faces a similar situation, with non-GAAP net losses widening 1.65% to 634 million yuan in 2026. The company projects breakeven or profitability by 2026 or 2027.
Together, these four companies represent four distinct commercialization stages: Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. — largest revenue scale, core business approaching profitability; Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. — positive book earnings but core operations still recovering; BIREN TECH — explosive revenue growth but still in scale-up; Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. — accelerating revenue with profitability still on the horizon.
Who Is Best Positioned to Win?
Revenue answers who has sold chips; profit answers who is closer to making money. But in a sector still in its early industrial stage, the decisive factor may be a third question: who can turn customers, products, and software ecosystems into a durable competitive moat? Customer structure and software ecosystem differences will determine who can first achieve a sustainable commercial loop.
Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. is pursuing a "deep partnership" strategy. Tencent is both its largest shareholder — holding approximately 18.64% post-IPO — and its largest customer, with direct sales and AVAP model revenue from Tencent accounting for 83.79% of total revenue in 2025. Technologically, Enflame is the only one of the four that explicitly does not support NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem, opting instead for a DSA architecture that prioritizes energy efficiency and domestic autonomy in exchange for long-term orders in Tencent's core scenarios. The trade-off is weaker versatility and higher costs for cross-scenario adaptation. Orders are clear, but heavy reliance on a single major customer carries obvious risks, and acquiring new customers is more challenging.
The other three companies have adopted CUDA-compatible GPGPU architectures. Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. has leveraged deep ecosystem integration to open the market, building a relatively complete software stack around its MUSA platform. Its MUSA software ecosystem has the broadest open-source community penetration among the four and is the fastest to achieve native adaptation, with over 800,000 developers. Its sales model has also shifted from distributor-led to direct sales, which now account for over 70% of revenue.
Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has the most diversified customer base. Its top-five customer concentration was 61.46% in 2025 — the lowest among the four — with coverage spanning intelligent computing centers, telecom operators, finance, and energy. This diversification offers the strongest resistance to single-client risk, though individual order sizes tend to be smaller. In terms of CUDA compatibility, Metax's strategy maximizes coverage: its proprietary MXMACA software stack already supports over 6,000 CUDA applications and more than 1,000 models, according to its H1 2026 report.
BIREN TECH focuses on high-end training and inference scenarios, competing on "model adaptation speed." Its BIRENSUPA stack has completed full adaptation of DeepSeek and been merged into the open-source mainline. The company also reports "Day 0" level adaptation for several flagship large models, with support for nearly 30 domestic models. Notably, BIREN is in a significant customer expansion phase, having completed supplier certification with major internet companies and begun batch deliveries.
Measured by different criteria: for customer structure stability, Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. leads; for ecosystem switching costs, Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. has the advantage; Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. offers the highest revenue certainty but carries the deepest single-client dependency; and BIREN TECH has relatively deep technical barriers but a shorter track record of commercial validation.
Looking Ahead
At present, the domestic GPU landscape shows Moore Threads Technology Co.,Ltd. with the largest revenue scale and healthy gross margins, moving toward core business profitability. Metax Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has achieved accounting profitability but remains unprofitable on a non-GAAP basis. BIREN TECH saw revenue surge nearly 20-fold year-on-year but still needs to address persistent losses. Shanghai Enflame Technology Co.,Ltd. has the smallest revenue base but commands a premium market valuation thanks to Tencent's backing, domestic substitution tailwinds, and expectations of rapid revenue growth.
With Enflame's listing, the GPU Big Four have now all made their public market debuts, opening a new chapter in the domestic GPU story. For these four companies, what will ultimately determine their next round of market standing is not who rallied the most today — but who can first achieve sustainable performance across revenue, gross margin, cash flow, and profitability.
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