CanSemi Technology

Semiconductors · AI Infrastructure

IPO

CanSemi's Shenzhen IPO oversubscribed 2,360x amid AI chip boom

Retail investors are betting on China's chip self-sufficiency drive even though the company has never turned a profit.

• CanSemi Technology's Shenzhen ChiNext IPO saw a record-low winning rate of about 0.042%, translating to roughly 2,360 times oversubscription after the clawback mechanism, per an exchange filing.
• The Guangzhou-based foundry, formerly known as Yuexin Semiconductor, is Guangdong's first mass-production 12-inch wafer fab and China's only large-scale maker of silicon-photonics wafers.
• Shares priced at 12.01 yuan ($1.79) each, raising roughly $918.5 million before fees to fund a third fab and lift planned combined capacity to 120,000 wafers per month.
• Revenue grew at a 57% compound annual rate to 2.58 billion yuan in 2025, yet CanSemi posted a net loss of about 2.35 billion yuan (roughly $350 million) as it poured cash into capacity expansion.
• More than 14.4 million retail accounts placed valid online orders, competing for roughly 179 million shares allotted after the clawback mechanism kicked in.
• The listing makes CanSemi the first pure-play wafer foundry to trade on Shenzhen's ChiNext board, a symbolic milestone as Beijing pushes for semiconductor self-reliance amid US export controls.
• The scramble shows Chinese retail investors are willing to bankroll an unprofitable chipmaker for AI-supply-chain exposure, a bet that domestic capacity matters more than near-term earnings.