Author丨Li Man
Source丨Dongsi Shitiao Capital
A decade of ups and downs for a Chinese chip company is once again ushering in a dazzling moment in capital.
On the evening of July 11, 2025, Yang Chonghe, a scientist hailed as the “first returnee in IC design”, submitted an IPO application for Lanqi Technology to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
At this moment, he once again leads the company to a new starting point—this is his third time leading a company to the capital market after landing on NASDAQ in 2013 and the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in 2019.
Just two days after the application documents were released, a performance forecast showing a doubling of net profit year-on-year caught the market’s attention: in the first half of 2025, the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders is expected to reach 1.1 to 1.2 billion yuan, an increase of 85.5% to 102.36% year-on-year.
Against the backdrop of another brilliant performance, the company has over 8 billion yuan in cash on hand. In terms of compensation, the founder’s annual salary reaches 9.99 million yuan, and the average salary of R&D personnel is one million yuan, clearly placing it at the top of the industry.
Starting from set-top box chips, Lanqi Technology has become a global leader in memory interconnect chips, holding a 36.8% market share in the field, with its products becoming indispensable “data veins” for AI servers. Lanqi Technology has also become a true “AI water seller”.
The Three Climbs of the Chip “Old Gun”
Yang Chonghe, 67, is recognized in the industry as the “first returnee in IC design”.
After earning his PhD in Electronic Engineering from Oregon State University in the United States, Yang Chonghe held core technical positions at major companies such as National Semiconductor and Intel. After returning to China in 1997, he co-founded one of the earliest integrated circuit design companies, Xintao Technology, which was acquired by IDT for $85 million in 2001, becoming China’s first successful exit in the semiconductor startup scene.
In 2013, Lanqi Technology went public on NASDAQ, becoming the brightest star in China’s semiconductor industry that year. At that time, the company’s core business was smart TV chips, but Yang Chonghe had already keenly sensed the crisis: consumer electronics chips have low barriers to entry and fierce competition. After facing a short-selling storm, just 14 months after the IPO, he made a surprising move—partnering with a Chinese consortium to complete a privatization delisting and fully shift focus to data center chip R&D.
“We saw the opportunity for memory interface chips brought by cloud computing, which requires long-term R&D accumulation, but once breakthroughs are made, a moat can be established,” Yang Chonghe explained during the 2019 Sci-Tech Innovation Board listing about the strategic shift of that year. This positioning accurately captured the DDR4 memory upgrade window, and when Lanqi Technology landed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in 2019, it became one of the most notable chip companies among the first 25 listed companies, with its opening price soaring 268% above the issue price.
The road to transformation has not been smooth. In 2018, Lanqi Technology collaborated with Intel to launch the Jindai server platform, attempting to create a benchmark for domestic AI servers. However, as GPUs became the core of AI computing power, the CPU-based Jindai platform quickly became marginalized—by 2021, this business contributed 845 million yuan in revenue, but by the first half of 2023, it had shrunk to just 5 million yuan.
Once again, a critical juncture arrived in 2023. In the face of the explosion of generative AI, the company quickly adjusted its direction again, using interconnect chips as a breakthrough. In 2024, the sales revenue of three high-performance capacity chips (PCIe Retimer, MRCD/MDB, and CKD) reached 422 million yuan, eight times that of 2023, successfully opening a “second growth curve”.
Today, Lanqi Technology holds 270 patents, not only being the largest supplier of memory interconnect chips globally, with a market share of 36.8% in 2024, but also one of the two major PCIe Retimer providers in the world, having pioneered the revolutionary CXL MXC chip. In the core area of AI data centers, this Chinese company’s technological voice is increasingly gaining prominence.
AIAs a “water seller” in AI, Lanqi Technology’s 2024 financial report is indeed surprising:
First, there is a significant leap in revenue and net profit. In 2024, revenue reached 3.639 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.2%, while net profit surged 213.1% year-on-year to 1.412 billion yuan. The performance forecast for the first half of 2025 is even stronger—net profit alone is expected to reach 1.1 to 1.2 billion yuan, nearing last year’s total level.
Behind all this is the contribution of the AI wave. The prospectus reveals that the company’s core growth engine comes from two major directions: the surge in demand for DDR5 memory interface chips due to AI servers, and explosive growth in the sales of three high-performance capacity chips. In the first half of 2025, sales revenue from capacity chips reached 294 million yuan, maintaining a high year-on-year growth rate.
Additionally, there is an optimization of product structure. As the proportion of high-margin products increases, the company’s overall gross margin continues to rise. In 2024, the revenue share of the three new chip products reached 11.6%, and by the first half of 2025, this proportion further increased to about 11.2% (based on total revenue of 2.633 billion yuan).
More critically, these chips are key to solving the AI computing power bottleneck—the PCIe Retimer chip can address the issue of signal attenuation in high-speed transmission, making the “dialogue” between GPUs, CPUs, and storage devices more efficient.
Compared to peers, Lanqi Technology’s profitability is particularly outstanding. In the field of memory interconnect chips, its 36.8% market share has surpassed international giants like Renesas and Rambus. Moreover, the net profit growth rate of 213% far exceeds many semiconductor companies that rely on government subsidies, demonstrating true market competitiveness.
“The ability to convert profits into cash is the touchstone for assessing the quality of a chip company,” commented an industry analyst.
As of the end of 2024, Lanqi Technology had cash and cash-equivalent financial assets of 8.627 billion yuan, with no bank loans. Cumulatively, cash dividends from 2022 to 2024 reached 1.123 billion yuan, making it a “cash cow”.
In 2024, Lanqi Technology awarded each of the two founders a pre-tax salary of 9.99 million yuan. Additionally, the company is also generous to its R&D staff. In 2024, 74.65% of Lanqi Technology’s employees were in R&D, with an average annual salary nearing one million yuan, totaling approximately 533 million yuan in compensation, significantly higher than peers.
Value Reassessment After Six Years of Dormancy
Some investors have questioned: with over 8 billion yuan in cash, why seek to raise 1 billion USD in Hong Kong again?
This is closely related to strategy.
From the NASDAQ listing in 2013, privatization in 2014, the Sci-Tech Innovation Board IPO in 2019, to the current push for Hong Kong stocks—every capital move by Lanqi Technology has been accompanied by strategic adjustments in its business structure.
During the 2019 Sci-Tech Innovation Board IPO, Intel held a 9.1% stake through its subsidiary, being an important strategic investor. At that time, Lanqi Technology collaborated with Intel to promote the Jindai chip domestically. However, as the Jindai platform declined, Intel gradually reduced its holdings.
In recent years, with the establishment of GPU as the main architecture in the AI cloud computing industry, Lanqi Technology has once again welcomed a second growth curve. At this time, state-backed investors like the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund have continued to increase their stakes, reflecting the trend of domestic substitution.
The funds raised from Lanqi Technology’s Hong Kong IPO will focus on: cutting-edge R&D of interconnect chips (including DDR6 pre-research), building global commercial capabilities, and strategic acquisitions. The prospectus also clearly states: “Capacity has become the cornerstone of AI computing systems, and the importance of interconnect is expected to continue to grow.”
The industry windfall is roaring. According to Frost & Sullivan’s forecast: from 2024 to 2030, the market size of memory interconnect chips will grow from 1.2 billion USD to 5 billion USD, with a compound annual growth rate of 27.4%; the PCIe/CXL interconnect chip market will expand from 2.3 billion USD to 9.5 billion USD, with a compound annual growth rate of 26.7%. This growth is driven by the surge in AI server shipments—expected to increase from 2 million units in 2024 to 6.5 million units by 2030.
Interestingly, despite the explosive performance, Lanqi Technology’s stock price has been nearly stagnant over the past six years. The closing price on the first day of trading on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in 2019 (after adjustment) was about 88 yuan, while on July 14, 2025, it was only 82.71 yuan.
Some market participants analyze that this reflects investors’ “memory discount” of the strategic missteps of the Jindai platform. Therefore, driven by the new performance, the significance of this Hong Kong IPO for value reassessment is highlighted.
Additionally, this Hong Kong IPO will also help enhance its brand’s international recognition and strengthen trust with overseas clients, especially partners in the cloud computing and AI industry chain.
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