China's Loongson Technology, a CPU designer funded by the Institute of Computing Technologies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has secured recently approval to launch an initial public offering (IPO) on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE).
Through the IPO launch, Loongson is looking to raise a total of CNY3.51 billion (US$552 million) to fund its advanced-node CPU and high-performance GPU R&D.
Loongson has moved to its own processor instruction set architecture (ISA) - dubbed LoongArch - with the launch of the Loongson 3A5000 series in July 2021, while reportedly having its CPUs successfully power HarmonyOS devices.
China is the largest consumer of CPUs, but the country's homegrown CPUs account for only less than 5% of the overall processors demanded domestically. Loongson, along with domestic peers including Huawei HiSilicon, Phytium Technology, Zhaoxin Semiconductor, Haiguang Information Technology and Suntai Infotech, are all key players in China's push for IC self-sufficiency.
