AXERA (00600) saw its shares climb more than 16% before the midday break, with its total market capitalization approaching HK$20 billion. As of the latest update, the stock was up 14.58% to HK$32.38, with a trading volume of HK$135 million. The rally follows recent progress in AXERA's smart automotive business, as the company's self-developed flagship chip M97—designed for high-level autonomous driving applications—has recently completed sampling and was successfully powered on. The M97 chip represents a core product in AXERA's push into the high-end smart vehicle segment and is the latest generation of smart automotive chips following the M55H, M76H, and M57 series. It integrates the company's key innovations in chip design and R&D. Public information shows that AXERA is a supplier of AI inference system-on-chips, focusing on building high-performance perception and computing platforms for edge computing and on-device AI applications. According to a CIC report, based on 2024 shipment volume, AXERA has become the world's largest provider of mid-to-high-end visual edge AI inference chips and ranks among the top five globally in the visual edge AI inference chip market. Additionally, the company holds the third position in China's edge AI inference chip market and is the second-largest domestic supplier in the smart driving SoC segment.