MetaX and Moore Threads' IPOs underscore Chinese chipmakers' growing challenge to Nvidia

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It felt like déjà vu when shares of chipmaker MetaX Integrated Circuits soared 700% in its Shanghai market debut on Wednesday. Moore Threads surged over 400% on its first day of trading just two weeks earlier.

They’re the latest Chinese AI chip companies the country’s investors are ploughing money into, as it races to develop its own semiconductors and challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the face of U.S. export curbs.

Both are developing graphics processing units (GPUs), the type of chip manufactured by Nvidia and used for advanced AI.

Investor enthusiasm around Chinese AI-chip IPOs is partly shaped by longer-term expectations that China will build a self-sufficient semiconductor ecosystem as tensions with the U.S. continue, Macquarie’s equity analyst Eugene Hsiao told CNBC.