China GPU chip designer secures $313m Series A

Other investors include CCB International, Qianhai Fund of Funds, China Merchants Securities, and Hubei High-Quality Development Industry Fund. The latter was initiated in June by the National Manufacturing Transformation & Upgrade Fund and the Hubei provincial government, with Hongtai Capital acting as manager.

Moore Threads previously closed two funding rounds amounting to several billion renminbi. In February, its pre-Series A was led by Sequoia Capital China, GGV Capital, and Shenzhen Capital Group.

The company specializes in graphics processing unit (GPU) chip design. GPU is a general platform for visual computing and artificial intelligence computing. It is used in autonomous driving, image recognition, big data analysis, and financial transactions.

The company claims to be the only world-class operator in China capable of covering the entire GPU lifecycle, from R&D and design to manufacturing, marketing, and service support. It announced，together with the latest fundraising that it has successfully developed the first domestically made full-feature GPU chip.

The Series A proceeds will support mass production of the new chip, R&D into system-on-a-chip (SOC) - which integrates all components of a computer onto a single chip - and expansion of the China GPU ecosystem. Moore has started adapting its product to domestic operating systems and has established hundreds of cooperative relationships to promote GPU application software.

According to IDC statistics, China's GPU server market will see compound annual growth of 27% through 2024, when it will be worth $6.4 billion.

Nvidia’s market share in China has risen from 50% in 2008 to 80% in 2020, according to Gu Lan, a chip expert at Shenzhen Capital Group. Moore brings together many of the system architects, graphics technology R&D scientists, chip design experts, and marketing practitioners who helped Nvidia succeed in China.

In addition to Nvidia, team members come from technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel Corporation, AMD, and Arm.

Chip design is arguably the most popular area among PE and VC investors targeting China's semiconductor industry, largely because it has the highest technology content and is the least capital intensive. Companies seen as having the potential to challenge global market leaders - by virtue of targeting emerging industry segments or having very strong teams - are hot commodities.

Another GPU developer, Biren Technology, has commanded a similar level of investor attention. The start-up - which was founded in 2019 by a former senior executive at SenseTime and has a technology team drawn from Huawei Technologies - has raised RMB2 billion across Series A and pre-Series B rounds in the past 12 months.

Other computing chip designers receiving funding in recent months include Enflame Technology, which closed a RMB1.8 billion Series C in January. Meanwhile, in July 2020, Cambrcon Technology became the first Chinese AI chip manufacturer to list on Shanghai's Star Market.

Winsoul Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for Moore's recent fundraising.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Early-stage
• China
• semiconductor
• 5Y capital
• Qianhai FoF
• BoCom
• CCB International Asset Management
• China Merchants Capital