Author | Pencil Road, Song Ge
Edited by Zou Wei, Qianbi Dao
Source: Pencil Road
At 68, the founder of BOE reenters the IPO race: Lost 4.9 billion over three years, taking another shot at chips
In 2019, at the age of 62, Wang Dongsheng stepped down from BOE.
The company he founded, BOE, has become the undisputed leader in China's display industry.
The outside world thought the "father of China's semiconductor display industry" was going to retire, but he immediately turned to a brand-new field—chips.
"The screen is almost done—why don't you work on the chip too?" These words from his friend ignited his passion for a second startup.
On May 30, 2025, Eswin Computing submitted its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the first time.
On January 30, 2026, six months later, the second filing expired again.
On July 31, 2026, 68-year-old Wang Dongsheng, accompanied by EdgeWeigh Computing, stood for the third time at the entrance of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Wang Dongsheng speaks at the BOE Global Innovation Partnership Conference. Source: BOE
- 01 - The second entrepreneurial journey of "the father of Chinese LCD technology"
In 1993, Wang Dongsheng led employees in raising a seed fund of 6.5 million yuan.
A shareholding reform was implemented on the Beijing Vacuum Tube Factory, which had suffered seven consecutive years of losses, leading to the creation of the predecessor of BOE.
More than twenty years later, BOE has become the world’s top display panel manufacturer by shipment volume, completely resolving China’s longstanding “screen shortage” issue.
In mid-2018, the ZTE incident struck a deep blow to China's entire semiconductor industry. With scarce upstream wafer capacity and soaring chip prices, China's semiconductor sector suffered severe setbacks.
Wang Dongsheng realized that while the issue of "screens" had been resolved, the problem of "chips" was far from solved. In September 2019, Wang Dongsheng co-founded Eswin Computing.
He quickly assembled an "all-star team": inviting Wang Bo, former product director at Intel, as vice chairman, and He Ning, former senior principal engineer at Qualcomm, as CTO.
The company focuses on two core application scenarios—smart terminals and embodied intelligence—using the next-generation RISC-V computing architecture.
Yiswei Computing has targeted the RISC-V open-source architecture as its breakthrough point—a potential new pathway to break the monopoly of ARM and x86.
The open-source architecture eliminates licensing fees, significantly reducing chip design costs; its modular nature is especially suited to the fragmented requirements of the AIoT era.
Amid escalating U.S.-China technological competition, RISC-V has become China’s strategic pathway to break through chip architecture restrictions.
Esports Wei Computing RISC-V chip products Source: Esports Wei official website
- 02 - Revenue is rising, losses are shrinking, but we're still losing money
Esports Computing is a chip product provider based on the RISC-V architecture, operating under a fabless business model.
Outsource all chip manufacturing, packaging, and testing to third parties.
By revenue in 2025, Eswin Computing is China's largest domestic provider of intelligent terminal human-machine interaction chips, with a market share of 5.7%.
Also ranked third in the Chinese domestic RISC-V controller chip market, with a market share of 1.2%.
The financial data disclosed in the prospectus reveals the company's trajectory over the past few years.
Revenue is growing: RMB 1.752 billion in 2023, RMB 2.025 billion in 2024, and RMB 2.431 billion in 2025, with a three-year CAGR of 19.4%.
Revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was RMB 494 million, representing an 18.4% year-over-year growth.
Losses are narrowing. Net losses were RMB 1.837 billion in 2023, RMB 1.547 billion in 2024, and RMB 1.516 billion in 2025. Total net losses over three years amounted to RMB 4.9 billion.
Net loss of RMB 375 million in the first quarter of 2026.
Gross profit margin is improving. The gross profit margin was 15.4% in 2023, 18.0% in 2024, and 18.6% in 2025.
The first quarter of 2026 was 14.8%, a slight decline, which the company attributed to seasonal factors.
Semiconductor wafer Source: Encyclopedia
The root cause of the loss is research and development.
R&D expenditure was RMB 1.445 billion in 2023 (82.5% of revenue), RMB 1.337 billion in 2024 (66.0% of revenue), and RMB 1.042 billion in 2025 (42.8% of revenue).
According to the prospectus data, the total R&D investment over the three years from 2022 to 2024 exceeded RMB 4.2 billion.
By the end of 2024, the R&D team exceeded 1,200 people, accounting for over 70% of the total workforce. Such a high level of investment makes profitability unlikely in the short term.
As of March 31, 2026, the company held approximately RMB 1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents. At the current burn rate, how long this amount will last is a practical concern.
- 03 - Computing chips surge 842-fold, with $9 billion raised over five years
Eswin Computing's products are divided into two categories: intelligent terminal chips and interconnect and computing chips.
Smart terminal chips are currently the main source of revenue. In 2025, human-machine interaction chips generated revenue of RMB 1.856 billion, accounting for 76.3% of total revenue.
Primarily used for screen display drivers in TVs, monitors, laptops, phones, and watches. But what truly stands out is the computing chip.
In 2025, computing chip revenue reached RMB 320 million, a surge of 842 times compared to RMB 0.0038 billion in 2023. Key products include automotive RISC-V MCUs and AI SoCs.
What does this growth rate mean? The company is expanding from "display-driven" to "computation-driven."
If the computing chip can continue at this pace,
The company’s valuation logic may shift from being seen as a "chip design company" to an "AI computing chip company"—the valuation gap between these two concepts in the capital market,could be more than an order of magnitude.
In terms of financing, the company has attracted a star-studded lineup of shareholders. Since its establishment in 2019, Esports Computing has completed four funding rounds, raising over RMB 9 billion. The investor roster includes prestigious names such as IDG Capital and Junlian Capital,
Dozens of institutions, including China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund II, China Internet Investment Fund, Gao榕 Capital, and Jinshi Investment.
Before the IPO, Wang Dongsheng indirectly controlled Eswin Group through Yiming Technology, which holds 52.4% of Eswin Group.
Through Yiswei Group and the employee stock ownership platform, they collectively hold 31.55% of the company’s shares, making them the actual controllers. According to market rumors, the company’s valuation once reached approximately RMB 35.3 billion.
Our affiliate company, Yiswei Materials, listed on the STAR Market in October 2025 at an issue price of RMB 8.62, raising RMB 4.636 billion.
Two companies under the Yisiwei group, one on the A-share market and one on the Hong Kong stock market, are helping Wang Dongsheng build his "chip empire."
On June 18, 2026, Yiswei Computing received a filing notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for its overseas listing, allowing it to issue no more than 2.465 billion ordinary shares listed overseas.
However, customer concentration is improving. According to the prospectus, the percentage of revenue from the largest customer has decreased from 75.0% in 2023 to 64.6% in 2025.
In the first quarter of 2026, it further decreased to 39.3%. Customer concentration risk is easing, but overall dependence remains relatively high.
- 04 - The Golden Age of RISC-V Meets the Semiconductor Boom
The industry segment in which Eswin Computing operates is experiencing explosive growth.
According to Frost & Sullivan data, the Chinese embodied intelligence chip market is projected to reach RMB 129.7 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to RMB 387.7 billion by 2030;
The market penetration rate of RISC-V in China's embodied intelligence chip market is expected to rise from 6.4% in 2024 to 28.2% by 2030.
Globally, according to RISC-V International, RISC-V chip shipments surpassed 10 billion in 2024, with China accounting for over 50%.
In 2024, RISC-V controller chip products achieved a market penetration rate of 1.3% in China’s smart terminal chip market, and are projected to reach 11.8% by 2029;
Penetration in the embodied intelligence chip market has reached 6.4% and is expected to reach 19.1% by 2029.
RISC-V chip Source: Internet
But a promising赛道 does not mean all participants will make it to dawn.
Eswin Computing ranks fourth among RISC-V host solution providers in China, with a 1% market share (2024 data), following Huawei HiSilicon.
The window period has arrived. In the first half of 2026, the global semiconductor sector became the absolute main theme of the capital market.
According to a report by浦银国际, the A-share Shenwan Electronics sector rose 86% in the first half of the year, while the U.S. Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged over 100%.
Behind this are record-high AI capital expenditures by cloud providers, a surge in demand for inference-side computing power, and accelerated domestic substitution.
As an open-source architecture, RISC-V offers advantages in cost and energy efficiency, and is rapidly gaining adoption in high-value AI applications.
Yiswei is now making a push to secure funding during this period of high industry momentum. For Yiswei Computing, this window of opportunity may be fleeting.
Eswin Computing has submitted its third application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, driven by the determination of a 68-year-old entrepreneur and a chip company’s obsession with becoming the “first RISC-V listing.”
Revenue is rising, losses are narrowing, compute chip business is exploding, and the RISC-V ecosystem is expanding—all are positive signs.
But a three-year cumulative loss of 4.9 billion, a market share of only 1%, and still no profitability to date—these are also facts.
Wang Dongsheng solved China’s “few screens” problem and now wants to address the “few chips” issue.
But the chip business is more capital-intensive, has a longer cycle, and carries greater uncertainty than the display business.
The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.
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