CAS-backed AI processor provider Cambricon, valued at $2.5bn in 2018, floated on Shanghai's Star Market.

China-based artificial intelligence chipmaker Cambricon Technologies has priced a RMB2.58bn ($368m) initial public offering that will achieve an exit for Chinese Academy of Sciences, Reuters reported on Monday. The offering will consist of 40.1 million shares issued on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market at a price of RMB64.39 each. The allocation makes up about 10% of Cambricon’s shares, according to the IPO prospectus. Cambricon provides AI processors for use in mobile devices and servers. One of its largest customers had traditionally been electronics manufacturer Huawei, though the latter company began making its own AI chips in 2019. The company’s revenues more than tripled to about $63.5m in 2019, though its net loss increased considerably from $6m to about $169m over the same period, according to figures in the prospectus cited by Reuters. The IPO follows a nine-figure series B round for Cambricon in 2018 that was co-led by SDIC Venture Capital, Capital Venture Investment Fund and the latter’s Guoxin Qidi Fund at a $2.5bn valuation. E-commerce firm Alibaba took part in the 2018 round through Alibaba Innovation Ventures, and it also featured CICC Capital, Citic Securities Goldstone Investment Fund and TCL Capital. Chinese Academy Of Sciences’ CAS Investment fund Alibaba, robotics technology provider Tuling Century and Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, the corporate venturing arm of consumer electronics producer Lenovo, had all contributed to Cambricon’s $100m series A round at a $1bn-plus valuation in 2017. The series A round was led by SDIC Chuangye Investment Management and also featured Oriza Seed Venture Capital and Yonghua Capital. The latter two had joined AI technology provider iFlytek to supply an eight-digit renminbi amount (RMB10m = $1.5m) of pre-series A funding for the company the previous year. – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

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