Semiconductor unicorn Silang Technology is sprinting towards the STAR Market.

On July 7, the official website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed that Shanghai Silang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Silang Technology")'s STAR Market IPO application has been officially accepted. In this IPO, Silang Technology plans to raise 4.426 billion yuan, with Guotai Haitong Securities as the sponsor.

This chip design company, originating from the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly promotes its 100% independent intellectual property MaPU architecture. It is attempting to supplement its high R&D expenses through the capital market, but has not yet shaken off its persistent losses.

According to the prospectus, Silang Technology's revenues for 2023, 2024, 2025, and the first quarter of 2026 are 251 million yuan, 424 million yuan, 673 million yuan, and 137 million yuan respectively. Although revenue shows a clear growth trend, the company has yet to achieve profitability.

During the same period, Silang Technology's net profits attributable to shareholders were -319 million yuan, -300 million yuan, -406 million yuan, and -283 million yuan respectively. This means that over the past three years and the first quarter of this year, the company's cumulative losses have reached 1.308 billion yuan.

Continuous losses are directly related to intensive R&D investment. The R&D cycle for underlying semiconductor architecture and high computing power chips is long, and the trial-and-error cost is high. During the reporting period, Silang Technology's total R&D investment reached 1.713 billion yuan, accounting for as much as 115.35% of total revenue. At this stage, this R&D-heavy model has not yet translated into sufficient large-scale commercial returns to cover costs.

In terms of business strategy, Silang Technology is different from most companies in the market that are compatible with or rely on NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem. The company's founder Wang Donglin previously led core technology development at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Silang Technology's core technological foundation is its self-developed MaPU architecture.

Based on this architecture, Silang Technology has launched the domestic 3D scientific computer "Tianqiong", mainly used in scientific intelligent computing scenarios such as microscopic molecular dynamics simulations.

In terms of industrial implementation, the prospectus reveals that "Tianqiong" has been delivered to Yangtze River Technology Computing and put into operation. The company's current client base includes industrial enterprises such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL), as well as scientific research institutions such as China Pharmaceutical University and the National New Materials Big Data Center.

Taking the route of independent underlying architecture avoids the risk of being restricted by foundational technology, but it also means Silang Technology must cultivate its software and developer ecosystem from scratch. In the scientific computing market, where leading companies like NVIDIA have established extremely high ecological barriers, advancing the commercialization of a completely new architecture and securing large-scale client validation poses a high threshold for market promotion.

For the planned 4.426 billion yuan to be raised in this STAR Market IPO, Silang Technology has provided a clear investment plan in its prospectus: 3.257 billion yuan will be used for the R&D and industrialization of next-generation science-intelligent chips, and the remaining 1.169 billion yuan will be invested in high-performance integrated computing system R&D projects.

In terms of equity structure, before this issuance, founder Wang Donglin controlled a total of 33.67% of the voting rights, making him the actual controller of the company.

Since its establishment in 2016, Silang Technology has completed nine rounds of financing, with relatively diverse investor backgrounds. In February this year, the D-round financing was led by CATL's subsidiary Puquan Capital, with SMIC's venture capital following. Previous rounds included appearances from Maotai, Chengdu Sci-tech Investment Group, and other industrial and state-owned capital institutions.

Overall, Silang Technology's independent underlying architecture and hard-tech attributes have won early support from industrial capital, and the company has successfully entered the IPO review stage.

But looking ahead, whether the company can continue to expand its market share, improve its cost structure, and ultimately realize profitability in the computing power market surrounded by giants will be the key focus for outsiders.

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