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Banu International Holding updated its prospectus on June 17 as it continues to advance its listing process on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CICC and CMB International are serving as joint sponsors.
Founded in 2001, Banu has become China’s largest premium hotpot brand by revenue. According to Frost &amp; Sullivan, Banu ranked first in China’s premium hotpot market by revenue in 2025. As of June 12, Banu’s directly operated store network covered 57 cities across China, with 200 stores in total, up 132.6% from the beginning of 2023. Its expansion also accelerated each year from 2023 to 2025, with 25 new stores opened in 2023, 35 in 2024, and 44 in 2025.
The updated prospectus showed that Banu’s full-year 2025 revenue reached RMB 2.85 billion (USD 419.9 million), up 23.4% year over year, while adjusted profit reached RMB 320 million (USD 47.1 million), up 88.7%. In store operations, its same-store sales growth rate was 4.8% for the full year, while its table turnover rate reached 3.6 times per day, up about 0.4 times year-on-year.
Behind those numbers is Banu’s longstanding focus on products. The company centers its menu on signature items such as beef tripe and wild mushroom broth. Its beef tripe is prepared using papain-based tenderization technology, which uses an enzyme derived from papaya. The company has also sourced tripe from New Zealand pastures for Chinese diners. Its wild mushroom broth uses mushrooms selected from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and is freshly simmered in stores every day. Through initiatives such as a monthly vegetable refresh program and year-round fresh bamboo shoot supply, Banu aims to offer a fresher, higher-quality hotpot dining experience.
While China’s restaurant industry faces intensifying competition and many brands are caught in price wars, consumers are not simply chasing lower prices. According to Frost &amp; Sullivan, consumers are paying increasing attention to dish quality and ingredient freshness. Health and freshness are becoming new trends in the hotpot industry, pushing the market toward a better balance between quality and price.
Banu’s focus on quality has also helped expand its customer base. Its membership count grew from about 3.7 million at the beginning of 2022 to nearly 20 million in 2026.
On the supply chain side, Banu has built a set of industrialized capabilities around quality control. The company has developed a third-generation supply chain based on three principles: procuring chilled rather than frozen ingredients where possible, choosing natural options over additive-based alternatives where possible, and completing delivery sorting on the same day rather than overnight where possible.
Through a daily delivery logistics network, products move directly from central kitchens to stores nationwide. Each central kitchen has a coverage radius of up to 600 kilometers, enabling 24-hour fresh delivery and more stable ingredient presentation. As of June 12, Banu operated five integrated central kitchens combining production and logistics, as well as one specialized soup base processing plant. Its business covered 14 provinces and municipalities across China.
Banu has also built an integrated digital system covering the entire business process, including procurement and supplier management, central kitchens, warehousing and logistics, employee management, and store operations. Its store inventory management system can track and analyze inventory levels and shelf life for major in-store ingredients. Supported by this system, stores can place orders daily and receive next-day deliveries from central kitchens through logistics scheduling.
At the operational level, this system has brought efficiency gains. Banu’s average monthly sales per square meter rose from about RMB 2,300 (USD 338.9) in 2023 to more than RMB 2,650 (USD 390.5) in 2025. Its store-level operating profit margin increased from 15.2% in 2022 to 24.9% in 2025. Its same-store sales growth reached 4.8%, while inventory turnover days fell 16.3% from 2023 to 2025. The continued expansion of its store network has also helped dilute fixed supply chain costs while maintaining relatively stable quality control standards.
Another point worth noting is that Banu currently has 54 stores in its home base of Henan, while its store network outside the province has expanded to 146 locations nationwide. Compared with 2023, its number of stores outside Henan has grown by 265%. These stores have achieved competitive table turnover and profitability levels, supporting Banu’s case for nationwide replicability.
At present, Banu’s directly operated stores cover first-, second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities. Stores in non-first-tier cities account for 80% of its total, and the store-level operating profit margin in second-tier and lower-tier cities reaches 25.6%. To some extent, this shows that its product-focused value proposition has broad market adaptability and can run across different tiers of China’s market.
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Looking further ahead, Banu may also have room to grow overseas, supported by the expansion of Chinese restaurant brands abroad and overseas consumers’ interest in natural ingredients and higher-quality dining experiences.
Before the IPO, Tomato Capital was Banu’s only external institutional investor, holding 7.95% of the company.
Banu said in its prospectus that the net proceeds from the IPO will mainly be used to expand its directly operated store network, improve digitalization in business management and store operations, build its brand, optimize its supply chain, and provide working capital and funding for general corporate purposes.
This <a href="https://xueqiu.com/2854806290/395421482">article</a> was adapted based on a feature originally written by Stone Jin and published on IPO Zaozhidao. KrASIA is authorized to translate, adapt, and publish its contents.
Note: RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of RMB 6.79 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 23, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.

Hotpot chain Banu posts stronger profit growth in updated IPO prospectus

Hong Kong

China

… and Wenge Jiangcai, he controls 30.66% of the voting rights.
The shareholder register shows a clear cluster of state-backed investors. They include a fund run by China Development Bank, the China Internet Investment Fund, which will hold 3.35% after the IPO, a CCTV-managed media investment fund, Zhongguancun Science City, Beijing AI Industry Investment Fund, Shenzhen Capital Group-affiliated investors including Shenzhen Capital Group and Hongtu Technology, which will hold about 4.1% after the IPO, IPV Capital, and CAS Star.
Among the management team, CEO Luo Yin also comes from the Institute of Automation at CAS. Luo will directly hold 4.24% after the IPO, making him the founder with the largest direct shareholding. CTO Cao Jia also comes from the Institute of Automation. Wang, Luo, and co-founder Zeng Dajun, deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, will become the largest shareholder after the IPO through Zhongke Sanshi, which will hold 15.15%. The three hold about 75.87%, 13.43%, and 10.7% of Zhongke Sanshi, respectively.
CFO Zheng Chaomin only took office in May last year. He was previously a director at RSM, where he spent more than a decade in auditing. Board secretary Ma Li also took office only in June last year. He was previously a vice president in CICC’s investment banking department, coming from the same firm as one of the IPO sponsors.
The IPO attracted six cornerstone investors, which together subscribed for USD 31 million, accounting for about 27% of the fundraising amount. They are China Orient Enhanced Income Fund, affiliated with China Orient Asset Management, Harvest Global Investments, Qianhai International, Guohui Holdings, Huatai Capital, and CMBC International.
In its prospectus, Wenge AI said its competitors include major artificial intelligence service providers, software companies, and system integrators, and that these rivals have advantages in branding, operating history, customer base, and resources. The decision intelligence market was only about RMB 3.9 billion (USD 574.6 million) in 2025.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3857959588418823">article</a> was written by Peng Xiaoqiu for 36Kr.
Note: HKD, RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of HKD 7.84 = USD 1 and RMB 6.79 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 23, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.

Wenge AI gears up for Hong Kong IPO at valuation above HKD 10.5 billion

Artificial Intelligence

Deep Tech

Foundation and Large Models

… orders.
<h3>Pushing into lower-end markets</h3>
Sales considerations may also be pushing HIMA to bring in secondary battery suppliers on a large scale.
At the end of 2025, Huawei executive director Richard Yu said during CCTV’s annual livestream that HIMA would launch more than ten new vehicles in 2026 and target annual deliveries of one million to 1.3 million units. Its five brands would cover price bands from RMB 150,000 (USD 22,101.4) to RMB 1.5 million (USD 221,014), using new products to drive incremental growth.
At present, new models such as the SAIC Z7, Luxeed V9, and Aito M6 have been released one after another. But the increase in models on sale has not yet translated into a major rise in HIMA sales. In May, HIMA’s sales grew nearly 3.8% year-on-year, slower than emerging <a href="/industry/ev">EV</a> brands such as Leapmotor and <a href="/company/xpeng">Xpeng</a>.
Official HIMA information referenced by 36Kr indicates that its cumulative deliveries from January to May this year did not exceed 200,000 units, with more than 130,000 contributed by the Aito brand. Compared with the target of delivering one million vehicles in a year, HIMA faces a sizable shortfall and has still not shaken off its reliance on Aito as a single brand.
The high-end market remains HIMA’s comfort zone, but the price bands occupied by models such as the Aito M9 and Maextro S800 ultimately have limited market capacity. Moreover, the new Aito M9 is under pressure from competing models including the Zeekr 9X, Li L9, and Nio ES9.
As fierce rivals emerge in the high-end market, Xpeng, <a href="/company/xiaomi">Xiaomi</a>, and other brands are also lowering prices and adding features in the broader mid-to-low-end market, pressuring models such as the SAIC Z7, Aito M6, and Luxeed R7.
In January this year, the Xpeng P7+ launched with its starting price lowered by more than RMB 30,000 (USD 4,420.3) to RMB 186,800 (USD 27,523.6). Xiaomi added a standard version of the Xiaomi YU7, bringing its starting price down to RMB 233,500 (USD 34,404.5) while still equipping it with a full suite of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) and advanced driver assistance features.
Value for money is one of the selling points most valued by low- and mid-end consumers. But constrained by the high costs of Huawei’s intelligent solutions and CATL power batteries, HIMA’s previous models targeting this price segment, including the SAIC H5, Luxeed S7, and Luxeed R7, did not achieve ideal market performance.
Now, under sales pressure, HIMA is trying to accelerate its penetration of this market through supply chain cost reductions.
An industry source close to Aito told 36Kr that all five HIMA brands have their own cost reduction methods. Aito has in fact been learning cost reduction from other HIMA brands and has long wanted to introduce secondary battery suppliers. Huawei and Seres had negotiated this many times. As companies gradually realized that the Huawei-CATL solution was too costly, Gotion’s 81-kWh battery pack is set to be installed on the Aito M6 this year.
At HIMA’s spring product launch in April, the Aito M6 had a starting price of RMB 259,800 (USD 38,279.6). After the introduction of secondary battery suppliers, the Aito M6 added two battery electric versions, Max and Max+. Both use 81-kWh battery packs and are priced lower than the original model, at RMB 229,800 (USD 33,859.3) and RMB 249,800, (USD 36,806.2) respectively.
This means the Aito M6’s starting price is several thousand RMB lower than the Xiaomi YU7 and about RMB 20,000 (USD 2,946.9) lower than the Li i6. In today’s intensely competitive automotive market, discounts of several thousand or even more than RMB 10,000 (USD 1,473.4) could become an important sales driver.
Luxeed is also experimenting with more cost-effective power battery solutions. A person close to HIMA said Luxeed is evaluating CATL’s mixed ternary and LFP battery system.
According to preliminary estimates, at the same 100-kWh capacity, a mixed-chemistry battery pack costs several thousand RMB less than a ternary battery pack. A RMB 5,000 (USD 736.7) reduction in bill-of-materials cost could translate into a viable cut of more than RMB 10,000 in the complete vehicle’s retail price.
For a long time, HIMA’s path has been to use technology to support brand premiums and quickly occupy the high-end market. But as its partner brand lineup expands and its market coverage broadens, it may also need tighter control over supply chain costs to maintain competitiveness.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3855879311823873">article</a> was written by Fan Shuqi for 36Kr.
Note: RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of RMB 6.79 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 23, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.

HIMA brings in secondary battery suppliers, with Gotion set to power Aito car models

East Asia

Transportation

Electric Vehicles

Batteries

Mobility

Energy

… its way out of the facility after injecting the fuel into a compressor.
A logo printed on one of the tanks read: "Actively promote hydrogen energy and embrace green mountains and clear waters."
This article first appeared on <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/policy-asia/china-s-hydrogen-push-outstrips-japan-s-in-new-fuel-race">Nikkei Asia</a>. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with <a href="https://www.0722vps.aieehr01.top/nikkei-teams-up-with-36kr-in-asia-tech-news-coverage/">Nikkei</a>.
Note: JPY, RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of JPY 160.14 = USD 1 and RMB 6.77 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 15, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.

China's hydrogen push outstrips Japan's in new fuel race

Japan

Tata Motors' decision to tap <a href="/industry/ev">electric vehicle</a> technology from China's <a href="/company/chery">Chery Automobile</a>, revealed earlier this month, has highlighted how Indian carmakers are increasingly leaning on proven technologies from China to power their electric cars—a strategy that could help accelerate launches, but carries risks given a history of frosty bilateral relations.
Tata Motors said in a statement on June 3 that some cars from its upcoming premium Avinya lineup will be based on a platform being jointly developed by its subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover and Chery, which was initially meant for reviving the Freelander brand. The first Avinya car will be rolled out next year.
Chery is also fueling the automotive ambitions of billionaire Sajjan Jindal, whose JSW Group has obtained a license to use the Chinese automaker's technology for a new brand expected to go on sale around the upcoming festive season, which runs from October through November. That builds on JSW's existing China connection through the 35% stake it bought two years ago in MG Motor's India operations, which are owned by China's SAIC.
Such deals reflect an urgency to make a splash with new cars as competitors from Japan, South Korea, and Europe, stung by the strong inroads being made by Chinese EVs, set their sights on India, which not only is the world's third largest car market but also has largely shunned Chinese players due to strict foreign investment rules. Indians are also warming up to EVs as the US war with Iran <a title="" href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/energy/india-raises-regular-fuel-prices-for-1st-time-in-4-years-on-iran-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushes up</a> gasoline prices, with cumulative sales in March and April jumping about 72% from the same period a year earlier to nearly 46,000 units, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations. The surge is raising hopes of <a title="" href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/electric-vehicles/ev-sales-set-records-in-37-countries-as-consumers-flee-high-gas-prices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a sales boom</a> and nudging carmakers to gear up for a battle for market share.
"The primary driver is time," said Vinay Piparsania, founder of automotive consultancy MillenStrat Advisory &amp; Research.
Developing an EV platform from scratch could take "billions of dollars and several years of development," he said, while licensing could advance launches by at least three years and "significantly reduce execution risks."
The deals by Indian players underscore a broader push by carmakers around the world to borrow expertise from China, by far the world's biggest EV market, with some of them buying stakes in Chinese counterparts to access technologies spanning hardware and software. Among them are Germany's Volkswagen and Dutch carmaker Stellantis, owners of the Chrysler, Jeep, and Peugeot brands. Volkswagen has a stake in <a href="/company/xpeng">Xpeng</a>, while Stellantis, which also operates joint ventures with Dongfeng Motors, has invested in <a href="/company/leapmotor">Leapmotor</a>.
Analysts said that while Indian carmakers have mastered gasoline-powered vehicles, they are still fine-tuning their EV skills.
"The challenge is that EVs represent a technological discontinuity," Piparsania said. "Indian manufacturers remain highly capable vehicle developers, but they are currently choosing to cut short development cycles where global competition makes waiting costly."
Harshvardhan Sharma, group head of the automotive tech and innovation group at Nomura Research Institute, views these decisions as a "natural progression" for Indian carmakers coming to terms with a new reality.
"This is a practical short-term move, but India must convert it into a capability building phase," he said. "The ambition should be to license, localize, learn and eventually lead, not simply import and assemble."
Still, India has made some progress. Mahindra &amp; Mahindra, for instance, has developed EVs from the ground up, and plans to start exports in about two years, its automotives chief Rajesh Jejurikar <a title="" href="https://asia.nikkei.com/editor-s-picks/interview/india-s-mahindra-looking-to-evs-pickups-in-global-push-autos-ceo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Nikkei Asia</a> in a recent interview. Tata Motors itself also sells several EVs that are battery-powered variants of its popular gasoline hatchbacks and SUVs.
Indian companies including the Tata Group's Agratas, Exide Industries, and the Amara Raja Group are also building sprawling factories to manufacture battery cells, which could eventually shrink India's import bills. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis estimates that nearly three-quarters of the lithium-ion batteries used in EVs in India are sourced from China, with the import bill soaring eightfold between fiscal 2019, which ended in March that year, and fiscal 2025 to top USD 3 billion. It could jump to USD 23 billion by 2030.
But Chinese technological prowess runs deep on that front, too. Amara Raja has licensed technologies from a subsidiary of China's Gotion, while Exide Industries has tapped Svolt, another Chinese firm.
Analysts warned that protracted dependence on China is risky, given the two nations' recent history of tensions, particularly over a territorial dispute in the Himalayas. In 2020, New Delhi tightened restrictions on Chinese investments after an outbreak of fighting there, although these were eased in March this year.
"India cannot afford to be slow in EV adoption, but it also cannot allow critical mobility infrastructure to become overdependent on one country," said Nomura's Sharma. "The risk is not just supply disruption, it is also pricing power, intellectual property dependence, cybersecurity, data and future bargaining leverage."
This article first appeared on <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/electric-vehicles/tata-chery-collaboration-highlights-indian-ev-makers-china-reliance">Nikkei Asia</a>. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with <a href="https://www.0722vps.aieehr01.top/nikkei-teams-up-with-36kr-in-asia-tech-news-coverage/">Nikkei</a>.

Tata-Chery collaboration highlights Indian EV makers' China reliance

Chery

India

… overseas profits. Accelerating capacity release at overseas factories has therefore become a priority.
By sales structure, the fastest-growing regions globally are currently South America and ASEAN, centered on Thailand. BYD’s Brazil factory began production in 2025 and remains in the ramp-up phase. Its Indonesia factory is still under construction, with production targeted by the end of the year.
The Rayong factory has always occupied a special position. It laid the first brick for BYD’s overseas manufacturing network. Now it is also the first to face the question of how to keep expanding production.
BYD has only just learned how to build a factory overseas. But Li told 36Kr that colleagues from the Rayong project team who were transferred to Brazil found that they had to “start from zero” again, saying nothing could be simply reused.
In 2025, BYD’s Brazil factory was investigated by the Brazilian government after a contractor violated labor rules by making 31 people share one restroom. “Chinese people find it hard to imagine how strict other countries’ requirements for working conditions are, and they also find it hard to imagine what might make employees stop working,” Li told 36Kr. Although the Rayong factory required enormous effort and still only achieved 50% capacity utilization, “if you don’t take this seriously, you won’t even be able to start operations.”
Chinese companies can bring standardized, steel-reinforced factory buildings and production line equipment anywhere. But the social foundations on which that equipment runs cannot be copied. Even within ASEAN, Thailand and Indonesia may have similar climates, but their religious beliefs, family structures, cultures, and education systems are different. Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, while Indonesia is predominantly Muslim.
Building factories overseas is becoming unavoidable for Chinese automakers. What they lack is not a blueprint, but a playbook that can work repeatedly across countries.
BYD’s Rayong base shows a simple truth: when Chinese companies build factories overseas, they must first become employers worthy of respect. The way to earn that respect may vary by market.
In China, it may depend on pay and human connection.
In Germany, it may depend on reliability and rules.
In Thailand, it may depend on dignity and personal growth.
In South America, it may require proof of long-term commitment.
Ultimately, wherever a company goes, the principle is the same. Admired businesses become part of a place, rather than simply passing through it.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3846882883963139">article</a> was written by Xu Caiyu for 36Kr.
Note: RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of RMB 6.78 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 19, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.

What BYD’s Rayong factory reveals about the limits of China’s overseas playbook

Thailand

Southeast Asia

… period.
Daniel Tse, managing director at Futu, said that to him investment advisory could be an area where AI can play a bigger role in the future, though service providers need to overcome significant hurdles.
"It's not just about regulatory compliance. It's also about how you train AI to ensure its recommendations are unbiased. That's a core challenge the entire industry is still trying to solve," Tse said.
This article first appeared on <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/markets/trading-asia/how-ai-is-changing-stock-trades-for-retail-investors">Nikkei Asia</a>. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with <a href="https://www.0722vps.aieehr01.top/nikkei-teams-up-with-36kr-in-asia-tech-news-coverage/">Nikkei</a>.
Note: RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of RMB 6.77 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 15, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.

How AI is changing stock trades for retail investors

Plaud has reached a milestone few <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence</a> companies have achieved at comparable speed, but the significance extends beyond revenue growth.
The company said on June 17 that it had grown from USD 1 million to USD 100 million in annual recurring revenue, or ARR, within two years, serving more than two million users across more than 170 countries. The milestone places Plaud among a small group of AI companies that have quickly reached the USD 100 million ARR threshold, a cohort largely made up of software-first businesses.
Plaud’s trajectory, however, has been built around hardware as much as software. Its products, including the Plaud Note, Plaud Note Pro, and Plaud NotePin S, are designed to capture conversations and convert them into structured notes, summaries, and workflows powered by AI.
While many AI companies have scaled through chat interfaces, coding assistants, and enterprise software platforms, Plaud is focusing on a form of AI adoption that begins before users sit down at a keyboard.
"The conversations that actually move things forward don't happen on a keyboard," Nathan Xu, co-founder and CEO of Plaud, said in a statement. "We built the interface for the post-screen world."
The argument reflects a broader shift across the AI sector. As models become more capable, attention is moving toward how AI systems collect context from the physical world and interact with users beyond traditional screens.
Several companies are exploring similar territory. Earlier this year, <a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance</a>-owned collaboration platform Lark and consumer electronics company Anker Innovations were reported to be <a href="https://0722vps.aieehr01.top/lark-steps-into-hardware-developing-an-ai-powered-recorder-with-anker">developing an AI-powered recorder</a>, highlighting growing interest in dedicated devices that can capture and process spoken information. Some smartphone makers, including Honor, have also been exploring AI features for on-device meeting assistants, memory functions, and autonomous task execution.
These efforts suggest the race to build AI-native interfaces is expanding beyond software applications and web browsers. Companies are increasingly experimenting with hardware, wearables, and ambient computing experiences that can gather information before it is manually entered into a system.
For Plaud, conversations sit at the center of that vision.
The company argues that much of the information that drives decisions is lost when it is translated into documents, summaries, or prompts after the fact. By capturing meetings, calls, and in-person discussions directly, Plaud aims to preserve what it describes as the "source-of-truth" context that can power AI-driven workflows.
That proposition has attracted attention from larger technology players. In May, Plaud was reportedly <a href="https://0722vps.aieehr01.top/tencents-rumored-plaud-deal-points-to-looming-ai-hardware-contest">exploring deeper collaboration opportunities with Tencent</a>, including a potential partnership involving hardware from the Chinese technology giant.
whereRelatedArticle
Plaud’s ambitions have also gone beyond individual note-taking.
The company said it is expanding into collaborative and enterprise-oriented workflows through Plaud Team, which brings conversation intelligence into shared work environments. It is also introducing integrations built around the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and other workflow connections designed to link conversations with broader AI agent ecosystems.
The strategy reflects a wider shift in enterprise AI. Rather than functioning only as standalone productivity tools, AI applications are increasingly being integrated into systems that can trigger actions, distribute information, and coordinate work across platforms.
Still, AI hardware remains an uncertain category. Smartphones, collaboration software, and emerging AI assistants are all competing to become the primary interface through which users interact with intelligent systems.
Yet, Plaud’s growth suggests there may be demand for products built around a different assumption: that conversations, rather than screens, could become the starting point for the next generation of AI workflows.

Plaud reaches USD 100 million ARR in two years as AI hardware gains traction

Tsing Micro, a semiconductor company developing reconfigurable chips, has completed the IPO counseling process and entered the counseling acceptance stage. Filings reviewed by IPO Zaozhidao show the company plans to list on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The move brings Tsing Micro closer to formally submitting its prospectus and could make it China’s first listed company focused on a non-GPU chip architecture, according to IPO Zaozhidao.
Founded in 2018, Tsing Micro focuses on R&amp;D and commercial applications of domestically developed reconfigurable chips, known as reconfigurable processing units, or RPUs. These chips are designed to provide computing power for <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence</a> computing centers, large models, <a href="/industry/autonomous-vehicles">autonomous driving</a>, and smart manufacturing. The company aims to build a domestic ecosystem for general-purpose computing based on RPUs and expand the use of reconfigurable chips across device, edge, and cloud computing nodes.
IPO Zaozhidao describes Tsing Micro as the developer of the world’s first commercial reconfigurable chip and as the commercial reconfigurable computing chip company with the largest shipment volume globally. Commercial reconfigurable chips follow a different technology path from traditional GPUs and can be used for AI computing and deep learning model acceleration. Reconfigurable AI chips are designed to retain the flexibility of GPUs while using dynamic operator reconfiguration to approach the energy efficiency advantages of dedicated AI chips, such as tensor processing units (TPUs). For this reason, some in the industry describe them as “general-purpose TPUs.”
Tsing Micro has begun mass-producing its TX8 series, a cloud computing chip for computing centers and other cloud environments, and its TX5 series, an energy-efficient chip for computer vision applications in edge computing. Together, the products are intended to support device, edge, and cloud computing scenarios.
The TX8 series is built on Tsing Micro’s self-developed reconfigurable dataflow architecture and targets the cloud market. Its TX81 AI compute chip uses chip-to-chip mesh technology, which allows data to move directly among chips, servers, and racks without first passing through network switches. The company said this design addresses three common bottlenecks in AI computing: computational efficiency, interconnect bandwidth, and memory access.
Tsing Micro’s cumulative reconfigurable chip shipments have reportedly exceeded 30 million units, and its chips have been deployed at scale in more than a dozen computing centers in China with at least 1,000 cards each.
At the software level, Tsing Micro is one of the few companies that has achieved full-stack compatibility with all core components of FlagOS, according to the report. Its adaptation scale ranks among the top two non-GPU architectures, alongside <a href="/company/huawei">Huawei</a> Ascend. That compatibility means AI applications developed on FlagOS can run on Tsing Micro chips. Last April, ten Chinese AI chip companies, including Tsing Micro, achieved same-day adaptation of the <a href="/company/deepseek">DeepSeek</a> V4 model based on FlagOS and released model inference images through FlagRelease.
Since its founding, Tsing Micro has attracted investors including national funds, state-owned capital, industrial investors, and market-oriented investment firms. Together, these backers give the company a shareholder base spanning policy support, industrial coordination, capital resources, and ecosystem links. The investor base could support Tsing Micro as it expands R&amp;D, deployment, and ecosystem development for AI chips built on emerging architectures.
This <a href="https://xueqiu.com/2854806290/395042990">article</a> was adapted based on a feature originally written by Stone Jin and published on IPO Zaozhidao. KrASIA is authorized to translate, adapt, and publish its contents.

Tsing Micro nears becoming China’s first listed reconfigurable chip company

Semiconductors