(Yicai) Sept. 7-- Shares of Moore Threads Technology, which designs graphics processing units and is often called “China’s Nvidia,” plunged by their daily trading limit to their lowest since listing after the company unlocked the first batch of restricted shares.

Moore Threads [SHA: 688795] closed down 20 percent at CNY415.48 (USD61.90) apiece in Shanghai today, bringing its market capitalization to below CNY200 billion (USD29.8 billion) for the first time. The company went public at an offering price of CNY114.28 on Dec. 5, ending 425 percent higher at CNY600.50 on its debut and peaking at CNY941.08 on its fifth trading day.

The restricted 25.8 million shares unlocked today, accounting for 5.5 percent of Moore Threads’ total share capital, are part of offline placement lockups, the Beijing-based company announced last month. Based on the issue price, investors holding stock earned a 264 percent paper profit per share even at the limit-down price.

Under rules for Chinese mainland-listed firms, Moore Threads must unlock another 185.9 million shares on Dec. 7, making up almost 40 percent of its share capital.

Established in 2020, Moore Threads is the first Chinese GPU manufacturer to go public. Benefiting from increasing demand for domestic chips to replace imports, its net loss narrowed 96 percent to CNY11.6 million (USD1.7 million) in the first half of this year from a year earlier, while its revenue soared 147 percent to CNY1.7 billion (USD253.4 million).

After Moore Threads, three other Chinese GPU makers, Metax Integrated Circuits, Biren Technology, and Iluvatar Corex Semiconductor, completed IPOs.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev