Recently, Internet Weekly, which is overseen by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly released the “2026 Artificial Intelligence Category Rankings” with Deben Consulting. Its “2026 AI Chip Companies of the Year” list was unveiled at the same time, with 30 leading domestic AI chip companies selected.

The list, which brings together China’s core AI chip players, includes “old money” names already listed on public markets, such as Cambricon and Hygon Information, as well as investor-favored newcomers including Moore Threads, MetaX, Biren Technology and Iluvatar CoreX. Twelve listed companies account for two-fifths of the ranking. Among the remaining 18 companies, excluding brands such as Huawei Ascend that have made clear they will not list independently, six have already set out plans to begin the listing process and are entering the IPO countdown.

Kunlunxin

Core strengths: Incubated by Baidu, Kunlunxin has become a leader among domestic AI chip companies thanks to its application-driven advantages and large-scale cluster technology. Its core P800 series AI chip delivers 345 TFLOPS of FP16 computing power, 2.3 times that of NVIDIA’s H20. By revenue, Kunlunxin is already in the first tier of domestic AI chip companies.

Valuation: As of its latest funding round in July 2025, Kunlunxin was valued at 21 billion yuan. Several investment banks have set higher expectations, with Goldman Sachs estimating a valuation range of 35.1 billion yuan to 126.4 billion yuan.

Listing progress: On January 2, Baidu Group disclosed in an announcement that on January 1, 2026, its subsidiary Kunlunxin had submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through its joint sponsors on a confidential basis. Kunlunxin will seek a listing and trading on the Hong Kong main board.

T-Head

Core strengths: T-Head is Alibaba’s independently operated chip company. From the record-setting Hanguang 800 AI inference chip launched in 2019, to the Yitian 710 general-purpose server chip released in 2021, and then the PPU general-purpose GPU chip that emerged in 2025, T-Head has built a full-stack product line spanning inference, training, storage and networking. Its “full-stack layout plus scenario coordination” model gives it stronger solution capabilities in competition with peers such as Cambricon and Moore Threads, which focus on narrower fields, and has become a key attraction for capital.

Valuation: The market expects a valuation range of $25 billion to $62 billion, equivalent to about 6% to 14% of Alibaba’s current market capitalization.

Listing progress: On January 23 this year, multiple media outlets cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Alibaba is advancing T-Head’s independent listing.

Enflame Technology

Core strengths: Enflame Technology is known as one of China’s “four GPU dragons.” It focuses on cloud AI chip design and has independently developed and iterated four generations of architecture and five cloud AI chips, building a complete product system covering chips, accelerator cards, AI computing clusters and software platforms.

Valuation: As of August 2025, Enflame was valued at about 18.2 billion yuan, and its valuation exceeded 20 billion yuan after its last funding round.

Listing progress: Enflame Technology’s IPO application was accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market on January 22, 2026. On the evening of April 16, the Shanghai Stock Exchange website disclosed Enflame’s first-round inquiry response materials for its STAR Market IPO.

Tsingmicro Intelligent

Core strengths: Tsingmicro Intelligent is an AI chip company spun out of Tsinghua University. It focuses on the R&D and industrial application of reconfigurable dataflow AI chips, or RPUs, and has been called the “Transformer” of the chip industry. Its reconfigurable chips compete on high energy efficiency, high flexibility, low cost and strong autonomy, making them an important “non-GPU” computing power option in the AI era. The company is also in the first tier globally among reconfigurable technology paths. According to the latest research report from market research firm IDC, in China’s AI accelerator card market in 2025, Tsingmicro Intelligent broke through with differentiated reconfigurable computing (RPU) technology and became the only new computing power architecture vendor among the top eight by shipment volume.

Valuation: After completing a Series C round of more than 2 billion yuan in December 2025, Tsingmicro Intelligent was reportedly valued at over 20 billion yuan.

Listing progress: According to disclosures on the CSRC website, Tsingmicro Intelligent completed IPO tutoring registration with the Beijing bureau of the CSRC on March 3, 2026, launching its A-share IPO process. It is expected to push for the title of “first reconfigurable chip stock.”

UNISOC

Core strengths: UNISOC is China’s leading communications chip company. Built around a dual engine of “AI + 5G,” its 5G platforms have shipped at scale in 88 countries and completed network adaptation with 163 operators. The company has built UNISOC’s on-device AI platform solutions, supporting flexible computing power configurations from 1T to 100T and reducing AI inference power consumption by 60%. They are widely used in smartphones, automobiles, industrial control and other fields.

Valuation: At its 2024 Global Partner Conference, UNISOC said that, on top of a previously completed 4 billion yuan equity financing that had been fully received, it would soon complete another nearly 2 billion yuan equity capital increase, with its valuation expected to reach 70 billion yuan.

Listing progress: The CSRC disclosed a progress report on UNISOC’s IPO tutoring work. The company is expected to complete IPO tutoring acceptance in the second quarter of this year, then submit a STAR Market IPO application as it pushes to become the first domestic smartphone chip stock.

Vastai Technologies

Core strengths: Vastai Technologies is a provider of high-end GPU chips, with self-developed core IP and two generations of GPU chips. It offers three product lines: graphics rendering GPUs, data center AI GPUs and edge AI GPUs. The company is one of the few domestic chip design firms to have achieved commercial deployment in both general-purpose AI and rendering. Its SV series chips can reach twice the data throughput speed of general-purpose GPUs in deep learning inference scenarios.

Valuation: According to the 2025 Hurun Global Unicorn Index, Vastai Technologies was valued at 10.5 billion yuan.

Listing progress: The company began IPO tutoring in July 2025, with CITIC Securities as the tutoring institution. It completed IPO tutoring in early 2026 and plans to apply for the STAR Market.

China’s AI chip independence has become urgent. From strategic spin-offs by internet giants such as Baidu and Alibaba, to technology upstarts incubated by Tsinghua-linked teams and industrial capital, the six listed companies are racing toward the capital markets from different technology paths. This marks the acceleration of domestic AI chips from technology accumulation toward industrial maturity. Kunlunxin’s tens of billions of yuan in shipments, Enflame’s cloud full-stack layout, Tsingmicro Intelligent’s architectural shift through reconfigurable chips: a new domestic AI chip landscape defined by diverse competition and cooperation, and by rising self-reliance, is taking shape quickly, giving China more room to maneuver in the global AI computing power race.