BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese chip design startup Moore Threads agreed a capital raise that brought its valuation to roughly 25 billion yuan ($3.449 billion) shortly before it was hit by U.S. export controls, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. in October added the graphic processing unit designer to a trade blacklist, cutting it off from having its chips manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co or other leading chipmakers that use U.S. equipment.
The month before Moore Threads had raised roughly 1 billion yuan in a so-called “series B+” round, one of the sources said.
Investors priced Moore at 24 billion yuan prior to the capital raise, and around 24.8 billion yuan after the injection of new capital, said the other source, who had been briefed about the fundraising progress in September.
Both sources declined to be named as the information is private. Reuters was not able to ascertain how the company’s valuation has since been affected by the U.S. curbs.
Moore did not respond to a request for comment. In October, it said it strongly opposed Washington’s move to add it to the entity list.
On Tuesday, updates to Moore Threads’ company registration data on third-party database Qichacha showed it added new shareholders including a fund called Houxue Qingxin and venture investment firm Chenan Zhizhi alongside an increase in its registered capital.
Established in 2020, Moore’s team members were primarily drawn from Nvidia and AMD. It was widely considered one of China’s most prominent efforts to develop products capable of competing with those from market-dominating Nvidia.
Moore has also received investment from a fund backed by an investment unit of state-owned China Mobile, and early funding from high-profile venture firms HongShan – known at that time as Sequoia Capital China – and GGV, as well as TikTok owner ByteDance.
($1 = 7.2482 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Jan Harvey)
