MetaX, Chinese GPU Manufacturer, Surges 693% on First Day of Trading

Founded in 2020 by a Former AMD Executive

The stock price of MetaX Integrated Circuit Shanghai (MetaX), a Chinese graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer, surged on its first day of trading.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on December 17 (local time), MetaX closed at 829.9 yuan on its debut on the Shanghai STAR Market, up 693% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 104.66 yuan.

MetaX began trading at a price 569% higher than its IPO price and at one point during the session, its gain reached 755%. The day's performance was the third highest among companies debuting on China's mainland stock exchanges this year.

Through this IPO, MetaX raised 4.2 billion yuan (approximately 590 million dollars). The stock's first-day surge is reportedly the highest among Chinese IPOs of companies raising between 500 million and 1 billion dollars over the past decade.

With Chinese GPU companies consistently posting sharp gains on their first day of trading, some analysts say that expectations for China's self-sufficiency in semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) are growing. Earlier, on December 5, another Chinese GPU company, Moore Threads, saw its stock price jump 425% on its debut. At the time of Moore Threads' IPO, retail investor subscriptions were 2,751 times the allocated shares, while for MetaX, the figure reached 2,986 times.

SCMP interpreted MetaX's stock surge as investors responding to China's goal of replacing imported GPUs with domestically produced ones for AI services. Li Hui, an analyst at Huajin Securities, stated, "MetaX is one of the leaders in China's high-performance GPU manufacturing industry," adding, "It is expected to fully benefit from domestic substitution."