Washington has barred Nvidia from selling its most advanced AI processors in China, while Beijing has instructed its tech companies to transition away from the products<\/a>.<\/p>\n Founded in 2020 by Zhang Jianzhong, a former senior Nvidia executive in China, Moore Threads is viewed as a second-tier domestic chipmaker, lagging far behind Huawei and chip designer Cambricon in market share.<\/p>\n Analysts at Bernstein estimate Moore Threads will sell $58mn worth of chips this year, compared with roughly $10bn each for Huawei and Nvidia.<\/p>\n By 2026, Huawei\u2019s sales are forecast to rise to $12bn, representing about half of China\u2019s AI chip market, while Moore Threads is projected to generate $93mn.<\/p>\n Nvidia\u2019s China sales are expected to plunge to $2bn next year, with its market share sliding from 40 per cent in 2025 to 8 per cent amid Washington\u2019s curbs.<\/p>\n Lawmakers are debating whether to allow Nvidia to sell its less advanced H200 chips<\/a> in China, with advocates of the move arguing the US should keep Chinese tech companies dependent on American technology to entrench its leadership in AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n The lossmaking Moore Threads secured fast-track approval to list after regulators this year eased profitability requirements for companies seeking to float on the Star Market, in an effort to boost capital raising for strategic sectors.<\/p>\n The company, backed by venture capital firm HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China, designs graphics processing units, initially for gaming but now adapted for training large language models used in AI \u2014 a trajectory mirroring Nvidia\u2019s.<\/p>\n By contrast, Huawei and Cambricon primarily develop application-specific integrated circuit chips, which were originally optimised for narrower computer vision applications before being re-engineered for generative AI work.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n There has been a shortage of Chinese-made AI chips this year because of constrained capacity at domestic plants.<\/p>\n Moore Threads was added to the US entity list in October 2023, cutting off its access to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which produces most of the world\u2019s AI chips.<\/p>\n The company has since moved manufacturing to mainland Chinese contractor Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, which has lower chip yields and more expensive production processes.<\/p>\n Moore Threads is the first in a series of AI chipmakers expected to go public in either Hong Kong or mainland China. MetaX recently won approval to list on Shanghai\u2019s Star Market. Biren and Enflame are also planning to go public<\/a> in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n![\"Jensen](\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ft.com%2Fv3%2Fimage%2Fraw%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%252Fproduction%252F1dfa46fd-267f-48b8-9d62-05a36ffcfd1d.jpg%3Fsource%3Dnext-article%26fit%3Dscale-down%26quality%3Dhighest%26width%3D700%26dpr%3D1?source=next&fit=scale-down&dpr=2&width=240\")
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