On September 26, the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced that Moore Threads Intelligence Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Moore Threads") had its STAR Market IPO application approved by the listing committee.

The successful approval of Moore Threads, dubbed the "Chinese NVIDIA," not only signals that A-share's "first GPU stock" is approaching, but has also sparked collective celebration in the primary market.

Founded in June 2020, Moore Threads has raised over 10 billion RMB to date, backed by dozens of renowned primary market venture capital institutions including Sequoia China, Shenzhen Capital Group, Tencent, and ByteDance, as well as listed companies such as Hetai and Lianmei Holdings.

As Moore Threads prepares to list on A-shares, these long-standing investment partners are all set to enter their harvest period.

More importantly, as an unprofitable company whose IPO application was smoothly accepted and approved, it sends a positive signal to the primary market—the window for unprofitable tech companies to go public is gradually opening.

**Stellar Founding Team Achieves Commercial Success First**

According to public information, Moore Threads primarily engages in R&D, design, and sales of full-function GPU-related products, making it one of the few domestic GPU companies that handles both graphics rendering and AI computing. Currently, Moore Threads has become one of the few domestic GPU manufacturers capable of providing full computational precision support from FP8 to FP64, and is the first domestic GPU company to launch DirectX12 graphics acceleration engine support.

Moore Threads' moniker as the "Chinese NVIDIA" stems not only from its similar technology and product layout to NVIDIA, but also from its special founding team. According to the prospectus, the company's founder and actual controller is Zhang Jianzhong, who has 14 years of experience at NVIDIA, serving as Global Vice President and General Manager of Greater China.

Additionally, several core executives have NVIDIA backgrounds. For example, co-founder and current director Zhou Yuan worked at NVIDIA from 2004 to 2020 as Senior Director of Market Ecosystem. Co-founder, director, and deputy general manager Zhang Yubo worked as a GPU architect at NVIDIA from 2013 to 2017. Deputy general manager Yang Shangshan also has 8 years of experience as a GPU architect at NVIDIA. Both Zhang Yubo and Yang Shangshan are core technical personnel at Moore Threads. Deputy general manager Wang Dong served as sales director at NVIDIA from 2007 to 2019.

This team covers core areas including GPU drivers, compilation, AI chips, software algorithms, system design, and sales, with core members having over 10 years of senior experience. Sequoia China partner Zhou Kui praised it as "the world's top modern GPU architecture design team."

Supported by this top-tier team, Moore Threads was first to achieve commercial success in the domestic GPU sector. Prospectus data shows that from 2022 to 2024, company revenue was 46.09 million RMB, 124 million RMB, and 438 million RMB respectively, with an annual compound growth rate exceeding 200%, showing rapid growth. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, gross profit margin climbed from -70.45% to 69.17%, showing continuous improvement. However, like most startup chip companies, increasing R&D investment keeps the company unprofitable in the short term, with cumulative net losses exceeding 5 billion RMB over three years, though losses are trending downward year by year.

**Domestic GPU Sector Sees "Big Four" Emerge, Top VC/PE Firms Already "Positioned"**

The "Chinese NVIDIA" positioning and stellar founding team have given Moore Threads strong fundraising capabilities since inception. According to incomplete statistics, the company has completed 8 funding rounds since establishment. The prospectus shows the latest shareholder list includes China Mobile, Shenzhen Capital Group, Shanghai Guosheng, Bank of China International and other renowned state-owned and financial institutions, top VCs like Sequoia Capital, and internet and industrial investors like ByteDance's Quantum Leap and Tencent Investment. In Hurun Research Institute's "2025 Global Unicorn List," Moore Threads is valued at 31 billion RMB.

After news of IPO counseling launch emerged late last year, numerous investment institutions still competed to "get on board," targeting existing shares—just in the first two months of this year, multiple institutions acquired shares from existing shareholders. Even though latecomers might not "get the meat," expectations to "get some soup" remain strong. After IPO counseling began, related concept stocks in the secondary market have moved on the news, with multiple trading halts. Predictably, after Moore Threads successfully lists on A-shares, investors will enjoy a wealth feast.

In fact, the domestic GPU sector has already produced a batch of quality companies: Muxi Integrated Circuits, Enflame Technology, Biren Technology are all making efforts in their respective fields and have all embarked on IPO paths—Biren Technology completed a 1.5 billion RMB funding round in June this year, aiming for Hong Kong IPO; Muxi has completed listing counseling, advancing further. In the "2025 Global Unicorn List," Enflame Technology is valued at 20.5 billion RMB, Biren Technology at 16 billion RMB, and Muxi at over 21 billion RMB. These companies are similarly backed by stellar investors: top financial investment institutions like Sequoia China, Hillhouse, IDG Capital, industrial capital like Tencent and ByteDance, and state-backed forces like Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund and China Reform Fund.

**Unprofitable Company IPO Process Accelerates, Boosting Primary Market Investment Confidence**

Notably, Moore Threads' STAR Market IPO took only 88 days from acceptance to approval, truly "lightning-fast approval." Previously, despite the STAR Market allowing unprofitable companies to list, such companies' listing processes remained slow for quite some time.

It wasn't until June last year that the "Eight Measures on Deepening STAR Market Reform to Serve Technological Innovation and New Quality Productive Forces Development" broke this deadlock, clarifying that unprofitable tech companies' listings would "no longer have negative lists, comprehensively considering technology, prospects and recognition," marking the reopening of the listing window for unprofitable tech companies.

Policy support continued in 2025: In June, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing announced the ChiNext board officially activated the third set of standards, supporting quality unprofitable innovative companies to list, followed by ChiNext's first unprofitable company acceptance case (Dapu Micro); On September 22, Wu Qing revealed at a State Council Information Office press conference that 3 unprofitable STAR Market companies had completed registration after restarting the fifth set of standards.

Policy relaxation has significantly accelerated unprofitable companies' IPO processes, greatly boosting primary market investment confidence. A VC firm executive focused on hard tech in Shenzhen told us that since this year, they've clearly felt policy "relaxation" in supporting quality unprofitable tech companies to list, which will open new space for cultivating new quality productive forces. Investment banks are accelerating deployment in strategic emerging industries, extending business to earlier-stage, smaller quality tech companies. "If more qualified unprofitable tech companies list on A-shares subsequently, primary market investment institutions' expectations and confidence in investing early, small, and in hard tech will definitely be greatly enhanced."