Significant News! Valued at 70 billion! Chip giant Unisoc has launched its IPO, benefiting these A-share companies.
The Chinese chip industry is witnessing a milestone event as the world’s fourth-largest smartphone chip manufacturer officially enters the capital market.
On June 27, 2025, the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission quietly updated a record: Unisoc (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. has officially started the A-share IPO guidance.
This chip design giant, known in the industry as “Little Huawei,” is being guided in its listing by Guotai Junan and CITIC Securities, with plans to land on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board.
As the only chip manufacturer in mainland China with complete 2G/3G/4G/5G baseband technology, Unisoc’s IPO process has attracted widespread market attention. Its latest valuation has reached 70 billion, and it is expected to become the first listed company in A-shares focused on all-scenario communication chips.
01 Key IPO Milestones: From Restructuring to Guidance Filing
The road to Unisoc’s listing has been fraught with challenges. As early as 2019, the company announced the initiation of preparations for listing on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, planning to officially submit materials in 2020.
However, in November 2020, Unigroup suddenly defaulted on bonds and subsequently entered bankruptcy reorganization, forcing Unisoc’s IPO process to be shelved.
A turning point occurred in July 2022 when Unigroup completed judicial reorganization, and strategic investor “Zhiguangxin Consortium” took over. In June 2023, Unisoc welcomed its new chairman, Ma Daojie, who is widely regarded as a key figure in driving the company’s listing due to his extensive experience at Tianyi Telecom Terminal Company and Unigroup Guowei.
In March 2025, Unisoc completed its shareholding reform, changing its name from “Unisoc (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd.” to “Unisoc (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd.”, with a registered capital of approximately 5.532 billion.
This change marks a crucial step in the company’s IPO process.
According to Shen Meng, a director at Xiangsong Capital, “In an ideal situation where external factors are excluded and the company’s conditions are complete, the guidance period usually takes 6 to 12 months to complete, after which it enters the formal listing application stage.” This means Unisoc is expected to officially land on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board by the end of 2025 or early 2026.
02 Unisoc’s Market Position: The Fourth Largest Smartphone Chip Manufacturer Globally
What kind of company is Unisoc? In simple terms, it is one of only two chip design companies in China with complete self-research capabilities for 2G to 5G basebands (the other being Huawei HiSilicon), and it is also one of only three suppliers of 5G smartphone chips in the global open market.
According to Counterpoint Research’s ranking of global smartphone AP-SoC market shares for the first quarter of 2025, MediaTek ranks first with a 36% market share, Qualcomm is second with 28%, Apple is third with 17%, and Unisoc ranks fourth with a 10% share.
In 2024, Unisoc’s smartphone chip shipments exceeded 1.6 billion units. Based on the global annual smartphone sales of approximately 1.15 billion units, its overall market share has reached 14%, meaning that one in every seven smartphones globally is equipped with Unisoc chips.
This achievement is backed by its continuous deepening in the mid-to-low-end market—by collaborating with brands like Transsion and ZTE, it has gained significant advantages in emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, while achieving large-scale applications in the domestic budget smartphone market.
From a growth trend perspective, Unisoc’s revenue in 2024 is expected to grow by 11% year-on-year to 14.5 billion, with chip shipments increasing by over 10% year-on-year, and market share rising for two consecutive years. Particularly in the 5G sector, its 5G chip sales have surged by 82% year-on-year, with over 100 terminal products equipped with related chips entering 85 countries worldwide.
03 Shareholder Structure: A Capital Layout Dominated by the “National Team”
Unisoc’s shareholder lineup is impressive, featuring a three-tier structure of “state-owned capital dominance, industrial capital collaboration, and foreign strategic holdings.”
Currently, New Unigroup holds 32.22% of Unisoc’s shares through Beijing Unisoc Investment Management Co., Ltd., making it the largest shareholder. The National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (commonly known as the “Big Fund”) holds 12.76%, making it the second-largest shareholder.
Intel China, as a strategic investor, holds 10.85%, ranking as the third-largest shareholder. This shareholding relationship facilitates Unisoc’s technological cooperation and international market expansion.
Additionally, Country Garden Innovation Investment and the second phase of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund hold 4.47% and 3.42%, respectively.
In 2024, Unisoc completed two rounds of significant financing: in June, it received 4 billion yuan from state-owned institutions such as ICBC Capital and Bank of Communications Investment, and in December, it secured nearly 2 billion yuan from founder Chen Datong’s Yuanhe Puhua, with a post-investment valuation reaching 70 billion.
Several A-share listed companies have indirectly participated in Unisoc’s investment through shareholding penetration. Companies such as Tongcheng New Materials, Huizhi Micro, and Changdian Technology are among the beneficiaries. These companies not only stand to gain investment returns from Unisoc’s listing but are also expected to further strengthen industrial collaboration.
04 Beneficiary Industry Chain Overview
As Unisoc’s IPO process advances, a clear beneficiary industry chain is emerging.
Direct shareholders and related parties
Changdian Technology, as a global leader in semiconductor micro-system integration and packaging testing services, has an upstream and downstream relationship with Unisoc in the semiconductor industry chain, participating in investment indirectly through shareholding penetration.
Tongcheng New Materials has a deep layout in the electronic materials field, and by participating in Unisoc’s financing, it is expected to enhance the industrial chain synergy.
Distribution and cooperation enterprises
China Electronics Port, as one of the largest electronic component distributors in China, undertakes the domestic distribution function of Unisoc’s 5G baseband chips. As Unisoc’s market share of 5G chips increases, China Electronics Port’s distribution scale and technical support capabilities will grow in tandem.
Shenzhen Huaqiang, a well-known enterprise in the electronic information industry, is also gaining market attention due to the “Unisoc system” industrial chain collaboration.
Downstream customer partners
Unisoc has over 500 brand customers, including Honor, Xiaomi, realme, vivo, Samsung, Motorola, Hisense, ZTE, JD.com, UnionPay, and Gree. These companies have formed deep cooperative relationships with Unisoc, widely applying Unisoc’s chip solutions in their products.
As Unisoc’s brand influence and technical strength increase post-listing, the supply chain stability of these partner companies will be enhanced, and cost advantages are expected to expand further.
05 Technical Strength and Market Prospects: Beyond Low-End Chips
Although Unisoc currently mainly occupies the mid-to-low-end market, its pace of technological breakthroughs is accelerating.
In the 5G field, Unisoc has launched the T8300 chip with a 6nm process, featuring an 8-core CPU architecture composed of two Arm Cortex-A78 cores with a frequency of 2.2GHz and six Arm Cortex-A55 cores with a frequency of 2.0GHz. This chip has been equipped in the ZTE Nubia Neo 3 GT 5G smartphone, priced at 299 euros (approximately 2513 yuan), marking the first time domestic chips have entered the core supply chain of mid-range 5G models.
In the smart automotive sector, Unisoc will launch the automotive-grade chip A7870 in 2024, which has passed the industry’s strictest AEC-Q100 certification and is already installed in SAIC MG’s overseas models.
In the Internet of Things sector, Unisoc has introduced the 5G RedCap chip V517 for industrial IoT, which is 50% smaller and 60% lower in power consumption than traditional 5G chips, becoming an “invisible necessity” for smart manufacturing and smart energy.
In the satellite communication field, Unisoc has quietly developed a chip supporting Beidou + GPS dual-mode, which has enabled a certain domestic budget smartphone launched in 2024 to achieve the “black technology” of sending messages without a signal.
The story of Unisoc is a microcosm of China’s semiconductor industry. From the arduous entrepreneurship of Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics to the strategic integration of Unigroup, and now the capital’s assistance in sprinting towards an IPO, it reflects the tireless efforts of countless engineers, the continuous investment of the state in the integrated circuit industry, and the collaborative breakthroughs of the entire industry chain.
06 Risks and Challenges: A Rational View of Investment Value
Despite the promising outlook for Unisoc, investors need to rationally consider the associated risks.
First, Unisoc has yet to achieve profitability. Although the company plans to break even in 2025, specific progress still needs to be observed. The chip industry requires significant investment and has long cycles, and short-term profitability pressure cannot be ignored.
Second, the company still lags behind top-tier companies in the high-end chip sector. Counterpoint data shows that in 2024, the global revenue of the Android high-end smartphone SoC market is expected to grow by 34% year-on-year, accounting for 52% of total Android SoC revenue. In this field, Qualcomm leads with a 59% share, while Unisoc has not yet entered the top five.
Third, global competition in the semiconductor industry is becoming increasingly fierce. The ongoing impact of U.S. chip restrictions on China and the uncertainties in the global consumer electronics market may pose challenges to Unisoc’s development.
Additionally, investors should note that Unisoc’s IPO process still carries uncertainties. Although it has completed guidance filing, whether it can successfully list, as well as the listing time and valuation, are influenced by various factors such as policy environment, market conditions, and regulatory review.
As Unisoc’s IPO process advances, the landscape of China’s chip industry is being reshaped. The Sci-Tech Innovation Board is about to welcome a true chip giant, and the A-share partners surrounding it are already prepared to embrace this capital feast.
It is foreseeable that after Unisoc’s successful listing, it is expected to replicate the sector effects brought by the listings of chip stocks like Zhaoxin and Cambricon, driving a revaluation of the entire semiconductor industry chain.
Risk Warning: The stock market has risks, and investment requires caution! This article is merely a personal opinion, and the content related to the subjects mentioned is for reference only, not constituting investment advice or recommendations. Investors trade based on this, and the risks are borne by themselves!