By Yue Wang
Publication Date: 2025-12-05 08:13:00
Zhang Jianzhong, founder of Moore Threads Technology, has joined the billionaire ranks as shares of his Chinese AI chipmaker soared over 420% on its Shanghai market debut amid optimism it could one day become the Nvidia of China.
The 59-year-old chairman and CEO of the Beijing-based firm has amassed a fortune of $4.3 billion based on his stake in the company, according to Forbes estimates. Moore Threads raised 8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in late November by selling 70 million shares at 114.28 yuan apiece, according to its prospectus.
The company did not respond to a request for comment. The initial public offering is one of the most anticipated in China this year – with the retail portion of the share sale being oversubscribed by 2,750 times despite a clawback mechanism that eventually allotted more shares to individual investors. Moore Threads now sports a market capitalization of 276 billion yuan and plans to use the proceeds for hiring as well as research and development.
Before its blockbuster IPO, Moore Threads raised funding from a star-studded list of investors including HSG (HongShan Capital Group, formerly known as Sequoia China) as well as the investment arms of Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent. In 2023, it was added to the U.S. government’s entity list, a trade blacklist that prevents it from accessing advanced American chipmaking technologies.
The company is benefiting from China’s push for technology self-reliance amid U.S. restrictions on…
