CXMT, a leading Chinese storage chipmaker, made public its IPO prospectus on Thursday as it moves toward a listing on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), adding to the recent surge in Chinese technology and semiconductor firms going public on the Chinese capital market to bolster domestic innovation and tech development.
According to the prospectus, the chipmaker plans to sell 6.688 billion shares in its IPO, which accounts for about 10 percent of the company's total share capital. The offline and online subscription dates for the new issuance are set on July 16.
Hu Qimu, a professor at the Maritime Silk Road Institute of Huaqiao University, told the Global Times on Thursday that this marks the company's IPO entering the market-oriented issuance phase. As a heavyweight industry leader going public, it will not only drive the enterprise's own development but also create spillover effects for companies across its supply chain, the expert noted.
The company said that the IPO will help drive coordinated development of key players across the industry chain, including storage chip designers, EDA vendors, semiconductor material suppliers, semiconductor equipment and component manufacturers, as well as downstream terminal application companies.
The IPO will enhance the overall strength of China's integrated circuit industrial chain and promote the development of China's semiconductor sector to a higher level, the company said.
On May 27, CXMT's IPO passed the regulator's review. The company plans to raise 29.5 billion yuan via the offering, which would make it the second largest IPO in the history of the STAR Market, and the largest IPO on the A-share market this year, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
"The listing of CXMT will boost investor confidence in China's chip sector and attract more long-term capital into the A-share semiconductor companies," Hu said.
On Tuesday, the STAR Market IPO filing by XPHOR Co Ltd, a Shanghai-based silicon photonics maker, entered the inquiry phase. Focused on high-performance silicon photonic integrated chips, the firm plans to raise 2.43 billion yuan through IPO. Moreover, Shanghai Enflame Technology Co, one of the country's "four GPU unicorns," also had its STAR Market IPO application approved by the regulator in June.
In addition to the semiconductor-related companies, Chinese robot maker Unitree Robotics in July received regulatory approval to list on the SSE's sci-tech innovation board. The company's prospectus noted that it plans to raise 4.2 billion yuan through IPO.
"Over the years, under China's innovation-driven strategy, a group of hard-tech companies in semiconductors, AI, and other fields have built strong technological and commercialization capabilities. Going public has become a key step for them to overcome growth bottlenecks by raising substantial capital to boost R&D, expand production, and strengthen supply chains," Hu said, highlighting the country's support for tech companies in the capital market.
To support China's drive for technological self-reliance, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the top securities regulator, rolled out upgraded institutional support for tech company listings during the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on June 17.
The scope of the fifth set of STAR Market listing standards will be extended to the AI sector, offering robust backing for high-quality enterprises developing large AI models to pursue IPOs, said Wu Qing, chairman of CSRC.
Also, the STAR Market will open doors for more hard-tech companies engaged in quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, embodied intelligence and other emerging technology, Wu noted.
"These policies will guide social capital toward strategic emerging industries, forming a virtuous cycle of 'technology-capital-industry,' and provide solid financial support for the country to secure a favorable position in global technological competition," Hu said.
Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Thursday that over the past few years, international capital's confidence in China's technological innovation has significantly strengthened. "Major breakthroughs achieved by China in chips, large language model applications, robotics, and other fields have also attracted a continuous inflow of international capital into the technological innovation sector," Yang noted.
According to a report by CNBC on Sunday, financial services provider Macquarie said that China has worked for years to build its own semiconductors, but it thinks now is the time to buy.
"We believe the best time to invest in China's AI chip players has arrived, given the development of AI, domestic large language model players and the token economy in China," Macquarie's China Information Technology analysts said in a late June report.
(Source: Global Times)