The journey began on a night four years ago. Another company based in Hefei has submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

This company, named Cool Chip Microelectronics, has been operating for fifteen years. It has produced video transmission chips for drones, navigated three industry cycles, and achieved a post-investment valuation of 3.34 billion yuan after its Series C funding round. It now ranks among the top three domestic players in China for visual processing AI SoCs.

Three key figures have been instrumental in supporting this long and challenging journey.

The first is founder Yao Haiping. He started the company in Shanghai in 2011 with two fellow Fudan University alumni, forming one of China's earliest teams focused on wireless video transmission chips. Eleven years later, he made a bold decision: to relocate the company headquarters from Shanghai to Hefei.

The second is Professor Gao Bingqiang. The 75-year-old former Dean of the School of Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, alongside Li Zexiang and Gan Jie, is known as one of the "golden trio" of hard-tech investors in the Greater Bay Area. In 2011, when Cool Chip Microelectronics was first established, he provided the initial angel investment personally. Over fourteen years, he has witnessed numerous industry trends come and go but has remained invested without exiting midway.

The third key figure is not a person, but a city. In the spring of 2022, amidst pandemic travel restrictions, Yu Aihua, the Party Secretary of Hefei, persuaded Yao Haiping via a video call to establish the company's operations in Hefei.

The story truly begins on that night four years ago.

**The Three-Hour Meeting in Conference Room 10**

On Friday, April 29, 2022, shortly after 5 PM, the lights in Conference Room 10 at the Hefei Government Services Center were turned on one by one. Staff adjusted screens and tested cameras in preparation for a special "cloud negotiation."

At that time, pandemic restrictions separated northern and southern China. The team from Cool Chip Microelectronics in Shanghai was confined to their offices. Chairman Yao Haiping prepared to connect via video link to the meeting room over a thousand kilometers away.

On the other end of the screen sat Yu Aihua, Member of the Anhui Provincial Party Standing Committee and Secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee. When the call connected, he got straight to the point: "Although the pandemic makes face-to-face meetings difficult, Hefei, with its scientific and technological spirit, can meet with you 'in the cloud.' Hefei welcomes you, and the people of Hefei welcome you too. We are accustomed to acting decisively on matters we commit to, acting quickly, and doing things well."

Yao Haiping was moved by these words.

He had founded Cool Chip Microelectronics eleven years prior. In 2011, he started the company in Shanghai with Fudan alumni Shen Bo and Zhong Qi. By 2012, they had entered the drone sector, becoming one of the pioneering teams developing video transmission chips for drones in China.

Over those eleven years, they had encountered numerous local investment promotion efforts—many were enthusiastic, but few were truly professional; many offered policies, but few truly understood the industry. Wu Wenli, Director of the Hefei Investment Promotion Bureau, explained to him that this "cloud negotiation" was just part of Hefei's "Three Ups" initiative: attracting companies from the industrial chain, conducting negotiations online, and utilizing evening hours—all to ensure the pandemic did not hinder industrial chain development.

Hefei also presented two specific policies: "corporate relocation fees" and "employee settling-in allowances." For a company relocating its headquarters, this meticulous attention to detail demonstrated more sincerity than any grand promises.

That night, Yao heard Secretary Yu's three-part description of Hefei, later frequently cited by the media: "In the distant past, Hefei might have made you 'disdain to give it a glance'; now, Hefei's development makes many feel 'incredible'; in the future, your experience in Hefei will surely be 'unlimited'."

Three hours later, Yao Haiping gave his answer: Cool Chip Microelectronics' headquarters would relocate to the Hefei High-Tech Zone.

Later, he told the media: "Hefei's project attraction is enthusiastic, sincere, and very professional. Their projects are very successful, and their attractiveness to the entire semiconductor industry is growing stronger."

This was not mere politeness. In February 2023, less than ten months after that night's discussion, the Anhui Provincial Intelligent Voice and Artificial Intelligence Fund collectively invested 135 million yuan in Cool Chip Microelectronics' B++ funding round. Prior to the IPO, the Hefei municipal government, through its affiliated funds, held a combined 5.56% stake in the company.

Looking back, that "cloud negotiation" involved total investments exceeding 40 billion yuan, with Cool Chip Microelectronics being just one participant. For Hefei, it was a classic example of "top-level promotion"—the Municipal Party Secretary personally involved, with coordination from multiple departments like development and reform and investment promotion, tailoring a "one-company, one-policy" approach. For Cool Chip Microelectronics, those three hours transformed it from a "Shanghai Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and New" enterprise into a national-level "Little Giant" enterprise in Anhui.

Corporate relocations often face challenges adapting to a new environment. However, Yao Haiping later discovered that Hefei's industrial chain reputation was well-founded. With three national-level industrial clusters—new displays, integrated circuits, and artificial intelligence—and seven provincial-level industrial bases including new energy vehicles and biomedicine, this city once known for home appliances has woven a network encapsulated by the slogan "Chips, Screens, Autos, Convergence; Urgent Needs, Life Sciences, Intelligence." Cool Chip Microelectronics focuses on visual processing AI SoCs, used in drones, smart IoT, and future AR glasses. Hefei恰好 can provide the complete puzzle pieces, from wafers to algorithms, from application scenarios to capital.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Hefei's entry brought 135 million yuan in funding but also came with a valuation adjustment mechanism. If the company fails to achieve a qualified IPO by a specified date, investors have the right to demand share repurchase at the original investment amount plus an annualized return of 8% to 10%. This creates a liability of 1.566 billion yuan on the books, an asset-liability ratio of 419%, while cash and equivalents stand at only 102 million yuan. Therefore, this is a battle they cannot afford to lose.

But at least on that night, no one was focusing on these challenges. Reflecting on the moment after everything concluded, Yao Haiping later used the term "partner." This word carries far more weight than "investment attraction target."

Today, the lights in Conference Room 10 at the Hefei Government Services Center still often burn late into the night. Batch after batch of "chain enterprises" sign contracts, settle, commence production, and list on the stock market before that very screen. Cool Chip Microelectronics is one of them—not the first, and certainly not the last.

**Gao Bingqiang, The 75-Year-Old Angel Investor**

At the same time as the late-night meeting in Hefei, a 75-year-old man a thousand kilometers away in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was following this video call.

Gao Bingqiang, the former Dean of the School of Engineering at HKUST, transitioned from academia to investment after retiring in 2005 and is known among young entrepreneurs as a "startup mentor." The "golden trio" he forms with Li Zexiang and Gan Jie has incubated a series of well-known hard-tech companies in the Greater Bay Area.

In fact, Gao Bingqiang's connection with Cool Chip Microelectronics predates Hefei's involvement by a full decade.

In 2011, shortly after Cool Chip Microelectronics was founded, the three founders presented their freshly minted business plan to him. At that time, Shen Bo had graduated with a PhD in microelectronics from Fudan University over a decade prior, while Yao Haiping and Zhong Qi were serial entrepreneurs in the chip industry. However, in the eyes of most investors, developing chips—especially for a "niche" sector like drones—meant long cycles, high risk, and slow returns. Most investors would politely accept business cards after presentations but never follow up.

Gao Bingqiang was the exception.

He invested. Not as a programmed allocation from a fund, but by taking a personal stake directly. He held onto this investment for fifteen years. Pre-IPO, Gao Bingqiang directly holds 5.92% of Cool Chip Microelectronics. Combined with the 0.31% stake held by his Brizan Ventures fund, his total holding exceeds 6%, making him the second-largest external shareholder after GigaDevice and the largest external individual shareholder.

What does fifteen years signify? It signifies the typical lifespan of a complete VC fund cycle from fundraising to exit. It signifies countless trends coming and going—the sharing economy, blockchain, the metaverse—while Cool Chip Microelectronics continued refining its chips. Gao Bingqiang did not jump ship midway. He holds positions in 98 companies and equity in 66 companies; Cool Chip Microelectronics is just one part of his vast portfolio. Yet, his commitment to this company far exceeds the patience limit of most financial investors.

When asked what he saw in Cool Chip Microelectronics, Gao Bingqiang did not answer directly, but his career itself provides the answer.

During his time at HKUST, Gao championed the purest form of industry-academia collaboration: not pursuing publication counts, but asking whether technology could leave the laboratory. The companies he invested in—Googol Technology, Smartsens Technology, Primarius Technologies, Beken Corporation—without exception, were all hardcore companies that transitioned from the lab to industrialization.

Meanwhile, Shen Bo has deep experience spanning thirty years in chip design, Yao Haiping possesses profound system-level understanding, and Zhong Qi entered the industry as early as 1998. These three Fudan veterans spent twelve years focused on one thing: turning visual processing algorithms into chips embedded in drones,扫地机器人, and AI glasses. This kind of "slow, meticulous work" is precisely what Gao Bingqiang is most familiar with.

In September 2025, Cool Chip Microelectronics turned an adjusted net profit positive, recording 46.961 million yuan. In December of the same year, GigaDevice invested 400 million yuan in a Series C round, resulting in a post-money valuation of 3.34 billion yuan. From 2011 to 2025, over fourteen years, Gao Bingqiang witnessed Cool Chip Microelectronics grow from a single office in Shanghai to a headquarters building in Hefei; from selling chips at a loss to achieving a gross margin of 44.3% and ranking third in China's drone market share.

**GigaDevice's Timely Entry**

In December 2025, just one month before Cool Chip Microelectronics submitted its HKEx application, memory chip leader GigaDevice made its move. Through a combination of share transfer and capital increase, it invested 400 million yuan to acquire a 10.36% stake in Cool Chip Microelectronics, instantly becoming the largest external shareholder.

The timing is noteworthy.

The Pre-IPO round is typically a time to "snap up shares," but GigaDevice was not merely seeking financial returns; it was strategically positioning itself for industrial synergy.

As a leading domestic memory chip manufacturer, GigaDevice is aggressively expanding into integrated "memory + computing" solutions. Cool Chip Microelectronics' visual processing AI SoCs are precisely the core of edge AI computing.

Reviewing Cool Chip Microelectronics' funding history: In the 2020 Series A round, investors from Shanghai's Zhangjiang area led with 60 million yuan. The 2021 Series B round saw 14 institutions, including the Beijing Integrated Circuit Advanced Manufacturing Fund, invest 440 million yuan. The 2023 B++ round involved 135 million yuan from Hefei-based investors. The 2025 Series C round concluded with GigaDevice's 400 million yuan investment.

Three stages, three forces. Shanghai was the starting line, Beijing was the accelerator, and Hefei provided the landing pad. GigaDevice's entry signifies industrial capital beginning to take the baton from financial capital. These cities and companies are all core participants in China's semiconductor industry. Pre-IPO, the shareholdings are: GigaDevice 10.36%, Hefei entities 5.56%, Pudong state-owned capital 4.18%, and Beijing entities 2.65%.

Pre-IPO, Cool Chip Microelectronics presents two sides.

Side A shows revenue surging from 105 million yuan in 2023 to 449 million yuan in 2024. The proportion of revenue from drone business increased from 13.7% to 43.4%. Gross margin rose from 11.2% to 44.3%. Losses narrowed from 308 million yuan to 2.277 million yuan.

Side B involves the valuation adjustment mechanism, debt, cash flow pressure, and the necessary shift from targeting a STAR Market listing to a Hong Kong listing. In the first three quarters of 2025, its operating cash flow turned negative again, with a net outflow of 40 million yuan.

To some extent, GigaDevice's investment is a "bet on certainty." As a leading A-listed memory chip company, GigaDevice understands that the risk facing Cool Chip Microelectronics is not related to its business model, but rather a matter of timing. Once the IPO hurdle is cleared, the repurchase clauses will automatically lapse, and cash flow pressures should ease.

Indeed, the timing for Cool Chip Microelectronics' listing appears opportune. On one hand, liquidity in the Hong Kong market is improving. On the other hand, the low-altitude economy is a major policy focus currently, positioned on the verge of significant growth.

In terms of market share, China's drone visual processing AI SoC market was valued at 3.5 billion yuan in 2024, with Cool Chip Microelectronics ranking third with an 8.0% share. Frost & Sullivan predicts this market will grow to 8.7 billion yuan by 2029, representing a compound annual growth rate of 21.2%.