In-Depth Analysis Report on Iluvatar CoreX's R&D Investment and Profitability

Now I have collected sufficient data, let me provide you with a comprehensive and systematic analysis report.

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Iluvatar CoreX (Stock Code: 09903.HK) was officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 8, 2026, becoming the last company among the “Four Little Dragons of Domestic GPUs” to enter the capital market [1][2]. Founded in 2015, the company is the first domestic enterprise to mass-produce general-purpose GPU chips for training and the first to mass-produce general-purpose GPU chips for inference [3].

Currently, the company has two major product lines, “Tiangai” and “Zhikai”:

• Tiangai Series
  : Focused on AI model training, has completed three generations of iteration from Gen 1 to Gen 3, with a single card supporting the operation of large models with tens of billions of parameters
• Zhikai Series
  : Focused on AI inference, optimized for low-latency and high-throughput performance, with actual performance reaching 2-3 times that of similar products on the market [4]

From December 2025 to January 2026, within a short 35 days, the domestic GPU industry witnessed a wave of intensive listings [5]:

Company	Listing Date	Listing Venue	First-Day Gain	Current Market Capitalization
Moore Threads	December 5, 2025	STAR Market	425%	~RMB 300 billion
Muxi Semiconductor	December 17, 2025	STAR Market	693%	~RMB 257.1 billion
Biren Technology	January 2, 2026	Hong Kong Stock Exchange	76%	~HKD 80.6 billion
Iluvatar CoreX	January 8, 2026	Hong Kong Stock Exchange	11%	~HKD 39.9 billion

The total market capitalization of the four companies has reached RMB 681.8 billion [5].

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Based on the prospectus and public financial data, Iluvatar CoreX’s R&D investment has the following characteristics [1][2][4]:

Period	R&D Investment (CNY 100 million)	Revenue (CNY 100 million)	R&D/Revenue Ratio	Year-on-Year Change
2022	4.57	1.89	241.1%	-
2023	6.16	2.89	213.1%	Decreased by 28 percentage points
2024	7.73	5.40	143.2%	Decreased by 70 percentage points
H1 2025	4.51	3.24	139.2%	Continuous decline

: The proportion of R&D investment to revenue has decreased from 241.1% in 2022 to 139.2% in H1 2025, with a [4].

Indicator	2022-2024 Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
Revenue Growth Rate	68.8%
R&D Investment Growth Rate	30.2%

: The revenue growth rate (68.8%) is significantly higher than the R&D investment growth rate (30.2%), indicating that as the revenue scale expands, the marginal benefit of R&D investment is increasing, and economies of scale are beginning to emerge [4].

Company	R&D Investment/Revenue	Characteristics
Iluvatar CoreX	143.2%	The lowest among the Four Little Dragons, with relatively high R&D efficiency
Muxi Semiconductor	~250%	High R&D intensity
Moore Threads	~600%	Highest R&D intensity
Biren Technology	~180%	Medium level
NVIDIA	14.2%	Mature enterprise, optimal R&D efficiency

Compared with NVIDIA, the R&D intensity of domestic GPU enterprises is generally 10-40 times higher, but this is a necessary cost to pay during the catch-up phase [4][6].

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Period	Revenue (CNY 100 million)	Year-on-Year Revenue Growth Rate	Net Loss (CNY 100 million)	Net Loss Ratio
2022	1.89	-	5.54	293.1%
2023	2.89	52.9%	8.17	282.7%
2024	5.40	86.9%	8.92	165.2%
H1 2025	3.24	64.2%	6.09	188.0%

[4][6]:

• Net Loss Ratio
  : Narrowed from 293.1% in 2022 to 188.0% in H1 2025, with an improvement of
  105 percentage points
• Gross Profit Margin
  : Rose from 45.1% in H1 2024 to
  50.1%
  in H1 2025, an improvement of 5 percentage points
• Three-Year CAGR of Revenue
  : As high as
  68.8%

In its prospectus, Iluvatar CoreX attributes its continuous losses to the following factors [2][6]:

1. Huge early-stage R&D investment
   : GPU chip R&D has a long cycle and high tape-out costs
2. Long product commercialization cycle
   : It takes 3-5 years from product launch to large-scale commercial application
3. Limited economies of scale
   : Compared with NVIDIA’s million-level shipment volume, domestic manufacturers are still in the initial stage
4. Increased sales and operating expenses
   : Sales and distribution expenses reached CNY 122 million in 2024

Company	2024 Net Loss	Loss Narrowing Trend	Expected Break-Even Time
Iluvatar CoreX	CNY 892 million	Loss expanding	No forecast provided
Muxi Semiconductor	CNY 186 million	Narrowed by 63.7%	2026
Moore Threads	CNY 271 million	Continuous narrowing	2027
Biren Technology	~CNY 450 million	-	No forecast provided

It is worth noting that although Iluvatar CoreX’s absolute loss amount is relatively large, its R&D investment as a percentage of revenue is the

among the Four Little Dragons, indicating its relatively high R&D efficiency [4][6].

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The GPU chip industry has the following characteristics, making high R&D investment an inevitable choice for catch-up players:

1. Extremely high technical barriers
   : Requires full-stack capabilities from architecture design, instruction set development to software ecosystem
2. High tape-out costs
   : A single tape-out for 7nm advanced process can cost hundreds of millions of yuan
3. Strong ecosystem dependence
   : Software ecosystems such as CUDA require long-term accumulation
4. Strong competitors
   : NVIDIA’s R&D expenditure in fiscal year 2025 reached USD 12.91 billion, which is 30 times the total R&D expenses of the four domestic leading GPU companies [6]

Compared with peers, Iluvatar CoreX has adopted a more pragmatic strategy [4][5]:

Comparison Dimension	Iluvatar CoreX	Moore Threads/Muxi Semiconductor
Product Strategy	Dual-drive of training + inference	Focus on training chips
Customer Concentration	Top 5 customers account for 38.6%	Over 75%
Number of Customers	290+	Relatively concentrated
R&D Intensity	143% (lowest)	250-600%

:

• A more diversified customer structure reduces the risk of dependence on a single customer
• Full-scenario coverage capability of “cloud-edge integration, training-inference collaboration”
• A gross profit margin of over 50% lays a foundation for future profitability

From an industry perspective, Iluvatar CoreX’s R&D investment has strategic necessity:

1. Need for technological catch-up
   : NVIDIA’s GPU products have iterated to the Blackwell architecture, and domestic manufacturers need continuous investment to narrow the gap
2. Product iteration rhythm
   : Tiangai Gen 4 is expected to be launched in Q2 2026, and Gen 5 is expected to be launched in Q1 2027 [3]
3. Market share competition
   : The Chinese GPGPU market size reached RMB 154.6 billion in 2024, and is expected to increase to RMB 715.3 billion by 2029 [3]

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Based on financial data, Iluvatar CoreX’s profit prospects show the following positive signals:

Indicator	Improvement Trend	Expectation
R&D/Revenue Ratio	From 242% → 139%	Expected to drop below 100% in 2026
Gross Profit Margin	45.1% → 50.1%	Expected to further improve under economies of scale
Net Loss Ratio	293% → 188%	Loss ratio continues to narrow
Revenue Growth Rate	68.8% CAGR	Expected to maintain a growth rate of over 50%

According to the current trend, Iluvatar CoreX is expected to achieve break-even through the following paths:

1. Continued revenue growth
   : Maintain a revenue growth rate of over 50%, with expected revenue to exceed CNY 1 billion in 2026
2. Decline in R&D intensity
   : R&D investment growth rate (30%) continues to be lower than revenue growth rate, leading to a natural decline in R&D/revenue ratio
3. Gross profit margin improvement
   : As shipment volume increases, economies of scale will reduce unit costs
4. Expense ratio optimization
   : The proportion of sales and management expenses to revenue is expected to decline

Company	Expected Break-Even Time
Muxi Semiconductor	2026
Moore Threads	2027
Iluvatar CoreX	Expected 2026-2027
Biren Technology	No forecast provided

It should be noted that Iluvatar CoreX’s management has

[6].

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1. First-mover advantage
   : The first domestic enterprise to mass-produce general-purpose GPUs for both training and inference
2. Technical strength
   : Full-stack independent R&D capabilities, compatible with mainstream AI frameworks
3. Customer base
   : Delivered over 52,000 units in total, serving 290+ customers and completing over 900 deployments [3]
4. Capital recognition
   : IPO received over 100x subscription, with 18 cornerstone investors subscribing HKD 1.583 billion

1. Continuous loss risk
   : Cumulative loss of over CNY 2.8 billion in three and a half years [6]
2. R&D investment pressure
   : Continuous high investment is required for product iteration
3. Supply chain risk
   : Dependence on US EDA software and IP cores
4. Market competition risk
   : NVIDIA dominates the market, and domestic competition is intensifying
5. Valuation pressure
   : Price-to-sales ratio is about 61x, which is at a relatively high level [7]

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: Yes, but this is an for domestic GPU catch-up players.

:

1. R&D intensity is at a low level in the industry
   : The R&D/revenue ratio of 143% is the
   lowest
   among the Four Little Dragons of domestic GPUs (Muxi 250%, Moore Threads 600%), indicating its relatively high R&D efficiency

2. Clear improvement trends
   :
   • R&D intensity decreased from 242% to 139% (a decrease of 103 percentage points)
   • Revenue growth rate (68.8%) is more than twice the R&D investment growth rate (30.2%)
   • Gross profit margin stabilizes at around 50% and continues to improve

3. Profit prospects are promising
   :
   • According to the current trend, the R&D/revenue ratio is expected to drop below 100% in 2026
   • Referring to peer forecasts, the industry as a whole is expected to achieve break-even in 2026-2027
   • A gross profit margin of over 50% lays a foundation for future profitability

4. Strategic necessity
   :
   • High R&D investment is a necessary condition to catch up with NVIDIA
   • NVIDIA’s R&D intensity is only 14.2%, but this is based on decades of accumulation
   • Domestic GPU enterprises need to make high investments to quickly make up for technological gaps

Dimension	Assessment
Short-term	Post-listing increase is lower than expected, but fundamentals are sound
Medium-term	Focus on revenue growth and the trend of declining R&D intensity
Long-term	A core target of domestic computing power infrastructure, with strategic allocation value

: Investments in the GPU industry need to pay attention to technological iteration progress, changes in market competition patterns, and supply chain security, among other factors.

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[1] Sina Finance - “Iluvatar CoreX Raises HKD 3.7 Billion, ‘Four Little Dragons of Domestic GPUs’ Gather in Capital Market” (https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2026-01-08/doc-inhfqpsp5356648.shtml)

[2] Sina Finance - “Iluvatar CoreX Listed, Four Domestic GPU Companies Gather in Capital Market” (https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2026-01-08/doc-inhfqcax6856648.shtml)

[3] Jiemian News - “Iluvatar CoreX Officially Lists on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Enters the Main Battlefield of Domestic GPU Stock Substitution” (https://www.jiemian.com/article/13853314.html)

[4] Wall Street CN - “HKD 48 Billion, ‘Luckin Coffee Operator’ Li Hui Bets, the Last of the ‘Four Little Dragons of Domestic GPUs’ Goes Public” (https://wallstreetcn.com/articles/3762851)

[5] PEDaily - “4 Domestic GPU Companies List in 35 Days, Total Market Capitalization Surges to RMB 680 Billion” (https://news.pedaily.cn/202601/559698.shtml)

[6] Southern Plus - “Founder Left, Two Leadership Changes, Iluvatar CoreX’s Hong Kong Stock Gain Lags Behind Peers” (https://www.nfnews.com/content/ryepXPXzog.html)

[7] Tiger Community - "Must-Read for Iluvatar CoreX IPO: ‘First Pioneer of Domestic Computing Power Infrastructure’ " (https://www.laohu8.com/post/518346748019936)

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: The chart above shows a comprehensive analysis of Iluvatar CoreX’s R&D investment and profitability, including revenue vs. R&D investment comparison, R&D intensity trend, loss ratio and gross profit margin trend, industry comparison, and core operating indicators.