Moore Threads IPO: Inside the Rise of China’s Answer to Nvidia

Moore Threads (摩尔线程) – often dubbed “China’s Nvidia” – is a Beijing-based GPU startup rapidly emerging as a key player in China’s semiconductor ambitions. As the company prepares for an IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market, it has drawn intense interest for its cutting-edge GPU products and strategic importance. Founded in 2020 by Zhang Jianzhong, a former Nvidia executive, Moore Threads has built a full-stack GPU ecosystem from graphics cards to AI accelerators . In this in-depth profile, we explore Moore Threads’ background, technologies, market positioning, funding journey, and its role in China’s drive for tech self-reliance.

Company Background and Founding

Moore Threads was officially established in October 2020, making it one of the youngest among China’s new wave of chip unicorns . Its founder and CEO, Zhang Jianzhong, previously spent 14 years as Nvidia’s Global Vice President and General Manager for China . Under Zhang’s leadership, the startup assembled a core team of veteran GPU engineers – including CTO Zhang Yubo, also an Nvidia alumnus – with the goal of developing a “full-function GPU” entirely in-house . This experienced team enabled Moore Threads to achieve extraordinary early milestones. Notably, the company designed and produced its first GPU chip in under 300 days, a speed hailed as setting a new “China speed” in chip design . By late 2021, Moore Threads had successfully developed a prototype of its first-generation GPU, demonstrating the team’s deep expertise in graphics and parallel computing architectures .

Despite its brief history, Moore Threads quickly gained credibility in China’s tech community. It earned recognition as a national “High-Tech Enterprise” in 2021 and was later designated a “Specialized and New” innovative firm in Beijing . Zhang Jianzhong initially operated behind the scenes – with the company’s early corporate registration under his wife’s name – but by 2023 he had taken full direct control, now holding roughly 36% of Moore Threads’ shares and serving as Chairman and General Manager . This restructuring set the stage for an IPO, solidifying Zhang’s leadership and aligning the company’s ownership for public listing.

The origin of the name “Moore Threads” reflects the company’s vision. It evokes Moore’s Law and multi-threaded processing, signaling a mission to push computing performance forward. As Zhang often emphasizes, the rise of AI and metaverse applications will demand massive computing power, and GPUs – with their parallel processing prowess – are the “computing base” for this future . Moore Threads’ stated vision is to become a globally competitive GPU leader providing advanced acceleration platforms for the AI-driven, digital world . In Zhang’s words, “Today’s large language models are only a starting point for AI. Future applications – from AI for science to immersive graphics – will require enormous compute. Aside from AI acceleration, Moore Threads can provide 3D rendering, video encoding, physics simulation, and scientific computing acceleration. With these diverse capabilities, our GPU clusters can serve a wide range of scenarios for the long term.” This ambitious outlook underpins the company’s founding philosophy.

Technical Capabilities and Products

From the outset, Moore Threads positioned itself as a full-spectrum GPU provider. The company developed its own GPU architecture called MUSA (Moore Threads Unified System Architecture) – a unified platform akin to Nvidia’s CUDA ecosystem . MUSA encompasses a common programming model, runtime libraries, driver framework, instruction set, and chip architecture, enabling software to run across Moore Threads’ various products . In essence, MUSA is the software and hardware backbone that ties together graphics rendering, general compute, AI, and multimedia functions on Moore Threads’ chips. This unified approach is crucial for developers, as applications written for MUSA can be easily ported between cloud and edge environments and across different workloads (graphics, AI, video, etc.) . It mirrors the strategy of Nvidia’s CUDA-unified platform, signaling Moore Threads’ intent to build an ecosystem rather than just standalone chips.

Hardware Architecture: Moore Threads specializes in “multi-functional” GPU chips, meaning each chip is designed to accelerate a diverse array of tasks. The company’s first-generation GPU (code-named “Sudi”**) debuted in 2022 and integrated four major engines: a modern 3D graphics engine, an intelligent multimedia engine, an AI compute engine, and a physics/scientific computation engine . By incorporating all these cores on one chip, Moore Threads became the first Chinese company to design a full-featured GPU covering graphics and AI, and it did so with remarkable speed to market . The emphasis on a general-purpose GPU contrasts with some domestic peers that focus solely on AI accelerators – Moore Threads aims to match the breadth of functionality offered by Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Moore Threads’ MTT S80 gaming graphics card features the company’s second-generation “Chunxiao” GPU with 4,096 MUSA cores. Launched in late 2022, the MTT S80 delivers up to 14.4 TFLOPS (FP32) and was billed as the world’s first PCIe 5.0 x16 gaming GPU .

Product Lines: In just a few years, Moore Threads has rolled out multiple GPU product series addressing different market segments:

• Gaming and Consumer GPUs: The firm entered the consumer graphics market with cards like the MTT S60, S70, and S80. The MTT S60 (launched in 2022) was a desktop GPU aimed at PCs and workstations, built on the first-gen “Su**di” chip. It packed 2,048 cores on a 12nm process, achieving about 6 TFLOPS FP32 performance . Notably, the S60 supported all major graphics APIs (DirectX, Vulkan, OpenGL) and even Windows 10 OS, a first for a Chinese GPU . Demonstrating decent gaming capability, it could run popular titles like League of Legends at 1080p high settings smoothly on Windows, and titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 on Linux . This showed early on that Moore Threads was serious about compatibility and user experience.

  The flagship MTT S80 card, released in late 2022, upgraded to Moore Threads’ second-gen GPU chip (code-named “Chunxiao”) with 4,096 cores at 1.8GHz. The S80 features 16GB of GDDR6 memory and a PCIe 5.0 interface, offering 448 GB/s bandwidth . With up to 14.4 TFLOPS of single-precision compute, the S80’s raw specs resemble a mid-high-range gaming GPU by global standards . In fact, it was introduced as the world’s first PCIe Gen5 graphics card, beating foreign competitors to that interface technology . Initially, the S80’s real-world gaming performance lagged behind contemporary Nvidia cards due to immature drivers – early tests showed it performing closer to a GeForce GTX 1650 in some games . However, over the past year the company has doubled the S80’s gaming performance through aggressive driver optimizations, achieving playable frame rates in titles like Genshin Impact and League of Legends by mid-2024 . The improved software support has significantly expanded game compatibility to virtually all top games in China . This progress highlights the learning curve for a new GPU entrant, and Moore Threads’ commitment to refining its software stack.

• Data Center and AI GPUs: In parallel, Moore Threads has developed server and accelerator cards for AI, cloud, and high-performance computing. Its first data center GPU was the MTT S2000, launched in 2022 alongside the S60. Based on the same first-gen architecture, the S2000 is a passively cooled, single-slot card designed for dense server deployments . It packs 4,096 MUSA cores (double the S60) and came with up to 32 GB GDDR6 memory, delivering around 10–12 TFLOPS FP32 performance . The S2000 was promoted as a “full-stack” data center GPU supporting 3D rendering, cloud gaming, video encoding/decoding (with multi-channel H.264/H.265/AV1 codec support), AI inference, and scientific computing – all in one package . It also introduced hardware GPU virtualization (MT Mesh 1.0) using SR-IOV technology, allowing one S2000 to be partitioned for multiple virtual machines – a crucial feature for cloud desktop and cloud gaming use cases . By supporting x86 and ARM server CPUs and mainstream Linux OS distributions, the S2000 could integrate into a variety of data center environments . Moore Threads partnered with server OEMs like Inspur, Lenovo, H3C, and Tongfang to validate the S2000 in their systems , signaling confidence that its GPUs could slot into existing enterprise hardware ecosystems.

  Building on that, Moore Threads released the MTT S3000 and MTT S4000 in 2023 as its next-generation accelerators focused on AI training and large-scale cloud clusters. The MTT S3000 (second-gen “Chunxiao” chip) offered around 15.2 TFLOPS FP32 and 32 GB memory, while the latest MTT S4000 (third-gen architecture, code-named “Quyuan”) pushes up to 25 TFLOPS FP32 with 48 GB GDDR6 memory . For context, Nvidia’s A100 data center GPU (2020 generation) provides ~19.5 TFLOPS FP32, and the current flagship H100 delivers ~67 TFLOPS . This means Moore Threads’ S4000 is roughly on par with Nvidia’s 2020-era high-end in raw single-precision compute, though only about one-third the performance of Nvidia’s latest top chip – highlighting a gap that Chinese GPUs still need to close at the ultra-high-end . The S4000 also introduced Moore Threads’ MTLink interconnect (240 GB/s bandwidth) for multi-GPU clustering, which, while improving multi-card scaling, remains far slower than Nvidia’s NVLink (900 GB/s) used in H100 systems . Despite these differences, the S4000 is a significant step up for China’s GPU capabilities. It is tailored for large AI model training and inference, supporting 8K HDR video output and multi-card distributed computing for models with tens of billions of parameters .

  Crucially, Moore Threads invested heavily in its software stack and developer tools to support these GPUs. The company provides drivers compatible with standard AI frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, PaddlePaddle, etc.) and libraries for graphics and multimedia . In a notable move, Moore Threads created a tool called MUSIFY, which allows developers to port CUDA code to MUSA with “zero cost” . In other words, existing CUDA-based applications can run on Moore Threads GPUs with minimal changes, leveraging the vast NVIDIA CUDA software ecosystem on a new platform. This strategy of CUDA interoperability is seen as vital for adoption, given Nvidia’s dominance in AI software. “Using our MUSIFY tool, the MTT S4000 can fully leverage the existing CUDA software ecosystem, achieving zero-cost migration of CUDA code to the MUSA platform,” the company announced . Such capabilities lower the barrier for cloud providers and researchers to experiment with Moore Threads hardware without rewriting all their code. Additionally, Moore Threads’ GPUs support all major operating environments – Windows and several Chinese Linux distributions (Kylin, UOS), x86 and ARM CPUs – ensuring they can slot into government and enterprise IT settings where domestic software stacks are used . This broad compatibility and “full feature” design ethos have been Moore Threads’ technical calling card.

Market Position and Industry Impact

Moore Threads has quickly risen to prominence in China’s nascent GPU industry. Among the handful of Chinese GPU startups founded around 2017–2020, Moore Threads is the youngest but has achieved the highest valuation and arguably the most comprehensive product lineup . Its approach closely mirrors Nvidia’s business model, earning it the nickname “domestic Nvidia” in Chinese media . Like Nvidia, Moore Threads offers both consumer GPUs (for gaming/graphics) and enterprise GPUs (for AI and data center), and it has established separate divisions for each. In 2023, the company created two strategic business units: AISG for AI chips and MCSG for consumer graphics, paralleling Nvidia’s split between its data center AI business and GeForce gaming division . This dual focus differentiates Moore Threads from peers such as Biren Technology or Iluvatar (燧原科技), which have concentrated mostly on AI training chips. By covering the full spectrum, Moore Threads aims to be a one-stop GPU provider for China’s needs – from powering video games and metaverse applications to training large neural networks and running cloud services.

In China’s GPU ecosystem, Moore Threads is seen as a front-runner alongside a few other well-funded startups. It is one of the country’s first firms to produce a “full-function” GPU (capable of graphics and compute), whereas earlier domestic efforts in GPUs were either limited to mobile graphics (like smartphone GPUs) or AI accelerators without strong graphics support. This unique positioning has made Moore Threads a showcase project for China’s broader tech industry. According to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024, Moore Threads was valued around RMB ¥255 billion (~$35 billion) – far above domestic GPU peers like Iluvatar CoreX (¥160B) or Biren (¥155B) . Industry watchers have noted that both Moore Threads and Biren were co-founded by former Nvidia China executives, and are considered the leading Chinese candidates to eventually rival Nvidia’s products . This has not escaped international attention: in October 2023, the U.S. government added Moore Threads to its export Entity List, explicitly identifying it (along with Biren) as a threat to U.S. dominance in AI chips . The listing is intended to hobble Moore Threads’ progress by cutting off access to advanced chip manufacturing using U.S. technologies . Paradoxically, the U.S. sanctions underscore Moore Threads’ importance – it has been deemed “China’s Nvidia challenger” on the global stage .

Domestically, Moore Threads has aligned its products with China’s push for indigenous technology in critical infrastructure. The company’s GPUs have been adopted or tested by major state-owned enterprises, particularly in sectors with “国产化” (localization) demand where dependence on foreign tech is a concern . For example, telecom giants China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom have partnered with Moore Threads on cloud computing and data center projects. In late 2022, Moore Threads joined with operators (China Mobile Beijing, China Telecom Beijing) and OEM Lenovo to form the “PES-KUAE Intelligent Computing Alliance”, aiming to deploy GPU-accelerated computing centers with domestic hardware . The company unveiled a computing cluster solution called KUAE, and by July 2023 it expanded this from a 1,000-GPU cluster to a 10,000-GPU cluster design, signaling an ambition to reach “万卡” (10k-card) supercomputer scale in the near future . Banks have also emerged as key partners: in October 2023, SPD Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, and Beijing Bank signed an agreement with Moore Threads to build a 10,000-GPU general-purpose computing cluster for fintech research, representing the first such large-scale GPU cluster by Chinese banks . Moore Threads has similarly signed cooperation deals with China Construction Bank’s Beijing branch and worked with state-owned energy and telecom firms on regional “zero-carbon” data center projects (for example, in Qinghai province and Guangxi) that plan to utilize Moore Threads GPUs .

This focus on state-backed clients and strategic industries shows Moore Threads carving out a protected niche: providing domestic GPUs for government, finance, and telecom applications where secure, locally-sourced technology is prioritized. It contrasts with Nvidia’s customer base, which is largely global cloud providers and AI firms. (In one recent quarter, Nvidia reported $26.3 billion in data center revenue, largely from U.S. and international tech companies .) Moore Threads, on the other hand, has found its early traction with Chinese enterprises that have mandates to reduce reliance on foreign chips . For instance, Moore Threads revealed that its GPUs and MUSA software stack have been optimized for China Mobile’s internal cloud platform, and its hardware is being used in indigenous AI computing centers built by local governments and companies . In the public sector, Moore Threads teamed up with GIS software firm SuperMap to create a GPU-accelerated 3D GIS solution entirely on domestic technology, lowering dependence on Nvidia or AMD GPUs . Another example is cybersecurity firm Qi-Anxin’s 360 Smart Brain AI appliance, which uses Moore Threads GPUs as the underlying compute engine . By embedding itself in such projects, Moore Threads is gradually seeding an ecosystem of applications tuned for its hardware.

To support these partners, Moore Threads has been proactive in building out its software and developer ecosystem. It claims to have hundreds of ecosystem collaborators – from CPU vendors (like Loongson, Phytium, Zhaoxin) to middleware and application developers . During product launch events, the company has showcased domestic software running on its GPUs, including WPS Office (Kingsoft’s office suite), the Little Fish video conferencing platform, Taiji Graphics and ZWCAD design software, Glodon BIM, Supremind GIS, and even game engines and sports games . By demonstrating support for popular Chinese software and workflows, Moore Threads is signaling to enterprise and government buyers that a viable “all-Chinese” computing stack is emerging. This broad approach – spanning hardware, system software, and industry solutions – is why analysts often compare Moore Threads directly to Nvidia, which similarly cultivates an ecosystem around its GPUs.

At the same time, Moore Threads faces challenges in truly rivaling the international giants. Observers note that Nvidia and AMD benefit from decades of IP accumulation and a vast patent portfolio in GPU technology – a formidable barrier for newcomers . “Foreign GPU vendors have accumulated a massive number of patents over decades; this is the reality domestic GPU products must face,” a veteran Chinese semiconductor engineer told Yicai Global . Additionally, while Moore Threads’ presence in protected domestic markets is growing, it has yet to prove itself in open competition against Nvidia/AMD for commercial cloud business. As of 2024, there have been relatively few announcements of China’s internet giants (like Alibaba, Tencent Cloud, or Baidu) deploying Moore Threads GPUs at scale; those companies still rely heavily on Nvidia (though U.S. export restrictions may force a change). Moore Threads appears aware that true market validation will require expanding beyond policy-driven sales. The company has recently cut prices on its gaming GPUs – for example, its mid-range MTT S70 card launched in mid-2023 saw a steep price drop from ¥2499 to ¥899 RMB within months – in an effort to attract more mainstream consumers and developers. It is also continually improving performance and software support, as seen in the S80’s driver progress, to make its products more competitive on pure merit.

Nonetheless, within China’s “GPU rush”, Moore Threads stands out. It has been frequently identified as a likely candidate for “China’s first GPU stock” once it IPOs . Other domestic GPU startups, like Biren and Celestial Semiconductor (沐曦科技), are also pursuing listings, but Moore Threads’ blend of strong financing, a star founder, and its full-stack strategy give it a leading profile. The coming years will test whether the company can translate its unicorn valuation into real market share in China’s booming AI computing market – projected to grow over 27% annually, with China’s GPU server market reaching $6.4 billion by 2024 .

Funding History and IPO Plans

Moore Threads’ rapid rise has been fueled by several hefty funding rounds, backed by an all-star roster of investors from both China’s state funds and big tech venture arms. In the span of three years, the company completed five rounds of financing totaling over ¥6.5 billion RMB (approximately $1 billion) . This war chest has supported its aggressive R&D and talent recruitment despite operating losses. Below is a brief timeline of Moore Threads’ funding journey:

• Angel & Pre-A Rounds (2020–Q1 2021): Shortly after its October 2020 founding, Moore Threads secured angel investment (amount undisclosed). By February 2021 (just ~100 days in operation), it raised a Pre-A round reportedly worth “several billion yuan” – an unusually large sum at that stage, reflecting investors’ high hopes. Notably, ByteDance (owner of TikTok/Douyin) participated in the Pre-A round , signaling interest from China’s tech giants in a domestic GPU alternative. Pandaily described the pre-A as a “mind-boggling” round for such a young startup . This early influx of capital allowed Moore Threads to sprint through chip development in 2021.

• Series A (November 2021): Moore Threads announced a ¥2 billion RMB Series A on November 25, 2021 . The round was jointly led by Shanghai Guosheng Capital (a state-backed fund), 5Y Capital (a major VC firm, formerly Morningside), and the BOC International Bohai fund, with participation from CCB International, Qianhai Fund of Funds, Sequoia Capital China, GGV Capital, and others . This mix of investors included both government-guided funds and market-oriented VCs, reflecting a strategy to blend policy support with commercial savvy. The A round proceeds were earmarked to accelerate mass-production of the first GPU chip, development of GPU SoC IP, and building the software ecosystem . Around this time, Moore Threads revealed that its inaugural GPU chip had successfully taped out, validating the investors’ bet.

• Series B (December 2022): In late 2022, Moore Threads closed a Series B of ¥1.5 billion RMB, which brought its company valuation to about ¥240 billion RMB (over $34 billion) . This round was led by the China Mobile Digital New Economy Fund (investment arm of the state telecom operator), along with existing stakeholders. The infusion came amid a global chip boom and China’s intensifying interest in AI infrastructure. By this point, Moore Threads had completed five funding rounds (Angel through B+), with cumulative fundraising exceeding ¥6.5 billion . Other known investors across these rounds include Shenzhen Capital Group (深创投) – a major government venture fund, Tencent (via its investment arm Tencent Venture Capital) , Sequoia China, GGV Capital, Lenovo Capital, and CAS-linked funds, among many others . The cap table is strikingly diverse: Moore Threads attracted tech giants, local government funds, insurance capital, and traditional VCs alike, all eager for a slice of the “China GPU” story.

• Series B+ (Late 2023): Despite geopolitical headwinds, the company managed to raise an additional ¥2+ billion RMB in a B+ round by November 2023 . This round, reportedly completed after Moore Threads was added to the U.S. Entity List, underscored Chinese investors’ confidence in its prospects. It also marked the fifth fundraising round since inception. Right before this, on October 17, 2023, the U.S. sanctions hit – Moore Threads was blacklisted for its role in advanced computing chips. In an internal all-hands letter, CEO Zhang Jianzhong addressed the sanction, announcing some “routine position optimizations” (interpreted as minor layoffs or restructuring) but emphatically saying China’s GPU industry is not in its “darkest hour” . “Our mission remains unchanged – we are dedicated to building China’s highest-quality full-function GPU, and we are determined to carry this undertaking to its ultimate goal,” Zhang wrote to reassure employees . The successful B+ raise soon after indicated that capital continued to back Moore Threads as a long-term play in spite of U.S. pressure.

By April 2024, Moore Threads’ valuation was listed at ¥255 billion on the Hurun Global Unicorn Index . To put its valuation in perspective, at ~$35 billion, Moore Threads is valued higher than many established semiconductor firms, yet its revenues are still nascent. According to the IPO prospectus, Moore Threads generated RMB ¥46 million in 2022, ¥124 million in 2023, and ¥438 million in the fiscal year ending April 2024, while incurring net losses of roughly ¥1.8 billion, ¥1.67 billion, and ¥1.49 billion in those years respectively . The exploding revenue (nearly 10× growth from 2022 to 2024) shows traction, but the company remains in heavy investment mode, spending aggressively on R&D and ecosystem development. These figures also highlight the high cost of designing competitive GPUs – requiring sustained funding until volumes scale up.

IPO Plans: Moore Threads is now charging toward an IPO on China’s STAR Market (Shanghai’s Sci-Tech Innovation Board). It officially initiated IPO counseling in November 2024 by filing with the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau, a required step to go public in China . By mid-2025, the company had submitted its IPO prospectus to regulators . The prospectus indicates Moore Threads aims to raise approximately ¥8 billion RMB (over $1.1 billion) in the offering . The fresh capital is earmarked for ambitious new chip R&D projects: roughly ¥25 billion for a next-generation AI training/inference GPU, another ¥25 billion for a next-gen graphics GPU, about ¥19.8 billion for a new AI SoC chip project, and the remainder (~¥10 billion) for working capital . These projects, described as “new generation autonomous and controllable” chips, align with China’s goal of self-reliance – implying the new GPUs will be domestically designed and hopefully manufactured without critical U.S. technology. The pre-IPO valuation was around ¥246.2 billion RMB (about $34B) , as per the last private financing round, and that was used to price the shares. If successful, Moore Threads’ IPO could become the first pure-play GPU listing in China, marking a milestone for the country’s semiconductor sector.

The listing process is expected to be closely watched. The company’s sponsor is CITIC Securities, and it reportedly completed the IPO tutoring and guidance phase by early 2025 . Barring regulatory delays, Moore Threads could debut on the STAR Market later in 2025. Given the hype around AI chips, some analysts anticipate a warm reception from domestic investors, though much will depend on market conditions and the company’s continued growth. It’s worth noting that other Chinese AI chip startups are lining up to IPO as well – for instance, Biren Technology filed for counseling in September 2024, and another GPU startup, Celestial Semiconductor (Muxi), did so in early 2025 . This suggests a race to the public markets as firms seek capital to fund next-gen chip development (which is ever more capital-intensive under tech export controls). Moore Threads, with the largest valuation, could set the benchmark.

Strategic Role in China’s Semiconductor Push

Moore Threads’ story cannot be separated from the wider context of China’s tech self-reliance campaign. GPUs are a linchpin technology – essential for AI, supercomputing, gaming, and military applications – and until recently, China had virtually no domestic alternatives to Nvidia or AMD. The rise of Moore Threads has thus been both a product of, and a contributor to, Beijing’s concerted efforts to foster homegrown semiconductor champions.