Shares in China’s MetaX Integrated Circuits soared 700% in their market debut on Wednesday, fueled by investor enthusiasm over a government initiative to reduce dependence on AI chips from U.S. giants Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Founded by former AMD executive Chen Weiliang, MetaX raised roughly $600 million in an initial public offering last week, days after bigger rival Moore Threads debuted with a 400% pop.
MetaX shares debuted at 700 yuan each in Shanghai, well above the IPO price of 104.66 yuan, and climbed as high as 895 yuan in early trading.
“It’s another IPO tale in China that turns a crow into a phoenix,” fund manager Yang Tingwu at Tongheng Investment told Reuters. The price surge “creates huge arbitrage opportunities” for pre-IPO investors, Yang said, and “we’re likely witnessing the stock’s peak level for the next five years”.
MetaX, which makes graphics processing units ((GPUs)), raised 4.2 billion yuan ($596 million) last week in a share sale that was more than 4,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors.