Kaiyuan Securities: Analysis of the "Four Little Dragons" of Domestic GPUs

Kaiyuan Securities recently stated that the "four little dragons" of domestic GPUs are Moore Threads (688795.SH), MetaX (688802.SH), Biren (06082), and Enflame (688801.SH). The four domestic GPU vendors differ in their technology route positioning and core application scenarios: Moore Threads positions itself as a full-function GPU, core-oriented toward AI, graphics, and scientific computing scenarios, currently mainly covering training and inference; high-performance GPGPU belongs to the high-end GPU category, corresponding to AI IDC application scenarios. In terms of operating data, in the first half of 2026 the four companies' revenue scales were relatively close, at 1.7 billion yuan for Moore Threads, 1.3 billion yuan for MetaX, 1.2 billion yuan for Biren, and 1.1 billion yuan for Enflame; at the gross margin level, Moore Threads was 57%, and Biren was 42%. The domestic GPU industry is currently crossing the core threshold from chip availability to scale availability, and needs to complete multi-dimensional verification: a. Supply chain verification: chips support HBM and packaging supply chain continuity guarantees; healthy inventory cycles and smooth supply chain circulation are core prerequisites; b. Customer verification: covering order implementation progress, long-term stable operation performance of compute cards, linearity, fault recovery capability, and unit compute cost verification; c. Profitability verification: this is the core foundation for the development of the domestic compute industry. In the next two years, the industry's core catalysts include mass production of new products and release of demand, and close attention should be paid to the mass production progress of new products such as MetaX C700 and Enflame L6600. The main views of Kaiyuan Securities are as follows: 1. Overall development overview of the four little dragons of domestic GPUs Overall development stage and differentiation logic: The four little dragons of domestic GPUs are Moore Threads, MetaX, Biren, and Enflame. All four have completed the first leap from chip R&D to stable cluster delivery, but have not yet entered a generally stable core profitability stage. The four companies' development mainlines are highly consistent: all were founded intensively in 2018-2020, completed first-generation chip and product verification in 2021-2022, entered the stage of scale delivery and large-model adaptation in 2023-2025, and gradually completed market listing in 2025-2026, sharing the growth dividends of talent return and joint R&D of new products and new ecosystems. The core judgment indicator for the next round of industry differentiation is no longer single-card control parameters, but software maturity, effective cluster compute, supply chain sustainability, and customer service. Technology route differences and changes in the competition stage: The four companies chose different technology routes, corresponding to different resource inputs, customer types, and supply chain constraints: Moore Threads' technology route covers AI, graphics, scientific computing, and video; it currently focuses on high-performance GPUs, builds multiple product lines, and its high-end GPUs support multi-card high-speed interconnect, adopting a route oriented toward AI computing, with the broadest scenario coverage and the largest system and ecosystem investment; MetaX's GPU route has high product performance targets, and its core losses have significantly narrowed. The industry has now entered a period of system competition, and the product evaluation system has upgraded from chip availability to three major dimensions: a. efficiency of rapid model migration; b. operational stability of thousand-card and ten-thousand-card clusters; c. controllability of unit OPS cost. In the first half of 2026, the four companies together achieved revenue of 5.5 billion yuan, of which Moore Threads, MetaX, Biren, and Enflame revenues were 1.7 billion yuan, 1.3 billion yuan, 1.2 billion yuan, and 1.1 billion yuan respectively, all having moved beyond the stage of only samples or small-batch verification; MetaX's net profit attributable to the parent in the first half of 2026 was 110 million yuan, and non-GAAP net profit was -50 million yuan. Industry common development stage division: The four companies' development has jointly gone through four stages: a. 2018-2022 team formation and financing stage, with core drivers being rising AI training demand and core talent returning to start businesses; the four companies were successively established and launched financing; b. 2021-2022 first-generation chip tape-out verification stage, when each company concentrated on completing first-generation chip tape-outs, released first-generation architectures, and entered customer testing for hardware and software; c. 2023-2024 scale delivery and large-model adaptation stage, when rising large-model compute demand combined with tightening export controls led each company to achieve its first batch of scale revenue, and supply chain layout continued to improve; d. 2025-2026 system competition stage, when customers focus on product stability and unit compute cost, and the four companies will successively land in the capital market. 2. Business development of each of the four little dragons Moore Threads' business development: Moore Threads was founded in June 2020 and officially began operations in October of the same year. Founder Zhang Jianzhong has long-term experience at Nvidia China and chose the route of a full-function GPU and unified system architecture. In terms of development history, it released its data architecture in 2021, released its hub architecture and first batch of products in 2022, restructured its supply chain in 2023 due to external controls, and released its de-evaluation architecture in 2024, completing new architecture iterations every year. In terms of financial data, 2024 revenue was 400 million yuan, 2025 (last year) revenue was 1.5 billion yuan, and first-half 2026 revenue was 1.7 billion yuan, exceeding last year's full-year level; losses narrowed substantially, R&D expense ratio was close to 30%, and gross margin was about 56%. Its core advantage is its full-function GPU architecture and wide product coverage; going forward, close attention should be paid to supply chain risks related to mass production of new architectures and the stability of external card demand. MetaX's business development: MetaX was founded in September 2020 and is positioned around independently developed full-stack GPUs and computing platforms, with product planning covering the 4CN series for inference and the C series for integrated training and inference. In terms of development history, the N100 project entered tape-out in 2021, N100 came back from tape-out and C500 started tape-out in 2022, N100 reached mass production and C500 returned from tape-out for verification in 2023, and C500 reached mass production and volume ramp in 2024, with cumulative GPU sales exceeding 25,000 units, verifying mass production and delivery capability. In terms of financial data, 2024 revenue was 700 million yuan, 2025 C500 scale sales revenue was 1.6 billion yuan, and first-half 2026 revenue was 1.3 billion yuan; it has already achieved profitability in the current period, with net profit attributable to the parent of 600 million yuan and gross margin as high as 60%. In terms of product structure, early commercialization was highly dependent on C500; in 2023, 2024, and the first quarter of 2025, the C500 series accounted for 30%, 97%, and 97% of main business revenue respectively. An excessively high proportion of a single product amplifies risks related to customer attributes and supply chain fluctuations. BIREN TECH's business development: BIREN TECH was founded in September 2019, focusing on high-end GPGPU, CPU, and intelligent computing solutions. Its core products center on the PB1.6, 106, and other series, and it is one of the first enterprises to realize a dual-AI-computing-chip 2.5D GPU product solution. In terms of technology route, it differentiates through high-end computing chips, placing higher demands on advanced packaging, interconnect design, yield management, and software scheduling. In terms of financial data, its hydrogen combustion project landed in 2024, with revenue of 300 million yuan, and first-half 2026 revenue was 1.2 billion yuan, with a gross margin of 42%. Its core advantage is deep technical accumulation in high-end computing chips, and a clear systematic path extending from base cards to POS; going forward, close attention should be paid to advanced process and supply chain stability issues. 3. Industry horizontal comparison and development outlook Horizontal comparison of the four little dragons' core indicators: The four domestic GPU vendors differ in technology route positioning and core application scenarios: Moore Threads positions itself as a full-function GPU, core-oriented toward AI, graphics, and scientific computing scenarios, currently mainly covering training and inference; high-performance GPGPU belongs to the high-end GPU category, corresponding to AI IDC application scenarios. In terms of operating data, in the first half of 2026 the four companies' revenue scales were relatively close, at 1.7 billion yuan for Moore Threads, 1.3 billion yuan for MetaX, 1.2 billion yuan for Biren, and 1.1 billion yuan for Enflame; at the gross margin level, Moore Threads was 57%, and Biren was 42%. Industry development thresholds and future catalysts: The domestic GPU industry is currently crossing the core threshold from chip availability to scale availability, and needs to complete multi-dimensional verification: a. Supply chain verification: chips support HBM and packaging supply chain continuity guarantees; healthy inventory cycles and smooth supply chain circulation are core prerequisites; b. Customer verification: covering order implementation progress, long-term stable operation performance of compute cards, linearity, fault recovery capability, and unit compute cost verification; c. Profitability verification: this is the core foundation for the development of the domestic compute industry. In the next two years, the industry's core catalysts include mass production of new products and release of demand, and close attention should be paid to the mass production progress of new products such as MetaX C700 and Enflame L6600. Q&A Q: What is the overall development history of the four little dragons of domestic GPUs and the core elements of competition in the next stage? A: The four little dragons of domestic GPUs have basically completed the first leap from whether they can make chips to whether they can stably deliver clusters, but have not yet entered a generally stable core profitability stage. The four companies' development mainlines are consistent: they were founded intensively from 2018 to 2020, completed first-generation tape-outs and product verification from 2021 to 2022, entered scale delivery and large-model adaptation from 2023 to 2025, and gradually listed in the market from 2025 to 2026. What determines the next round of differentiation is no longer single-card control parameters, but software maturity, effective cluster compute, supply chain sustainability, and customer service. In the first half of the year, the four companies together achieved revenue of 5.5 billion yuan, all having moved beyond the stage of only samples or small-batch verification. Q: What are Moore Threads' development history, financial performance, and core advantages? A: Moore Threads chose a full-function GPU unified system architecture, covering AI, graphics, scientific computing, and video, with the largest system and ecosystem investment. In 2025 it achieved revenue of 1.5 billion yuan, and in the first half of the year it achieved revenue of 1.7 billion yuan, exceeding last year's full-year total. Net profit attributable to the parent narrowed substantially in loss, R&D expense ratio was close to 30%, and gross margin was about 56% to 57%. Its core advantage lies in its full-function architecture and extremely broad product coverage. Q: What are MetaX's development history, financial performance, and core advantages? A: MetaX was founded in September 2020 and focuses on high-performance GPUs. In 2024, C500 mass production and volume ramp achieved revenue of 700 million yuan; in 2025, C500 scale sales revenue was 1.6 billion yuan; and in the first half of the year it achieved revenue of 1.3 billion yuan. In the first half of the year, net profit attributable to the parent was 110 million yuan, non-GAAP net profit was -50 million yuan, core losses have significantly narrowed, and gross margin was as high as 60%. Q: What are BIREN TECH's development history, financial performance, and core advantages? A: BIREN TECH was founded in September 2019 and focuses on high-end GPUs and intelligent computing solutions. It is one of the first companies to realize a dual-AI-computing-chip 2.5D GPU product solution. In 2024 it completed project implementation and achieved revenue of 300 million yuan; in the first half of the year it achieved revenue of 1.2 billion yuan, with a gross margin of 42%. Its core advantage lies in deep accumulation in high-end GPUs and advanced packaging technology, and a clear path extending from base cards to systems; the key factors are advanced process and supply chain. Q: What are Enflame's development history, financial performance, customer structure, and core advantages? A: Enflame was founded in March 2018, the earliest of the four companies, and designs products around cloud AI training and inference. In 2024, Suisi 320 landed and achieved revenue of 700 million yuan; in the first half of the year it achieved revenue of 1.1 billion yuan, with net profit attributable to the parent of -600 million yuan. Tencent-related revenue increased from 100 million yuan in 2023 to 830 million yuan in 2025, and its revenue share rose from 33% to 83%. Its advantages lie in being founded early, continuous product iteration, and long-term joint optimization with Tencent; the risk lies in an excessively high share of Tencent revenue and high customer concentration. Q: What are the key verification elements and future catalysts for the domestic GPU industry to cross the threshold? A: The domestic GPU industry is crossing the threshold from chip availability to scale availability. The next generation of key verification elements includes: continuity of chips supporting HBM and packaging supply chains, tape-out capability, progress in customer order verification, long-term stable operation of thousand-card and ten-thousand-card clusters and linearity, fault recovery and TCO cost verification, and net profit conditions. Catalysts in the next two years include mass production of new products, growth in inference demand, and cluster expansion.