Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company Cambricon Technologies is moving ahead with its plan to list its shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with the aim of raising up to 2.58 billion yuan or roughly $367.7 million. On Tuesday, the company revealed that it will be offering around 40.1 million new shares in Shanghai, roughly 10 percent of its total shares.
In its submitted prospectus, Cambricon Technologies set its listing price at 64.38 yuan per share. The company will be listed on the Shanghai Exchange's Star Market tech innovation board. The exact date of when it will be making its shares available for trading has not yet been announced.
The initial public offering (IPO) will value the company at around 25.7 billion yuan or roughly $3.66 billion. This places it well above the price-to-sales ratio of its already listed counterparts and makes it one of the country's most valuable AI startups.
Cambricon Technologies was originally founded in 2016 by brothers Chen Yunji and Chen Tianshi. The company's AI chips are now found in more than 100 million smartphones and services throughout the country. Some of its biggest customers include smartphone and telecom giant Huawei Technologies and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. The company had also landed a deal to supply its AI chips to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The company's plan comes just days after China's top semiconductor firm Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) revealed that it had more than doubled the pricing of its planned listing on the Star Market. SMIC announced that it will be pricing its shares at 27.46 yuan each, which means that the offering could raise up to 46.29 billion yuan or roughly $6.55 billion.
Cambricon Technologies' planned IPO is the latest in a string of proposed listings on local capital markets as more Chinese companies are now choosing to sell their shares at home. The growing tensions between China and the United States have also convinced firms already listed in the US to launch secondary listings in Hong Kong and the mainland to reduce their exposure and risks. US lawmakers and regulators have imposed new rules that are specifically targeting Chinese firms, dramatically increasing the risks of possible delisting.
Shanghai's tech innovation board and Hong Kong have become a popular destination for Chinese tech startups, particularly after a wave of policy changes have now made it much easier for US-listed Chinese firms and newly established companies to sell their shares. The latest companies that have already launched secondary listings are JD.com and NetEase, which have both raised a combined $5 billion.
