It is a domestic chip deeply rooted in consumer livelihoods, and also a touchstone for testing the compatibility between hardcore technology and the capital market. In China's semiconductor sector—a track characterized by enduring high popularity and extremely fierce competition—FMD has been deeply engaged for two decades, accumulating solid independent technology and mature mass production capabilities, yet repeatedly turning back on the path to capitalization. After three dashes for an IPO and one failed M&A marriage, each time it was within reach of capital landing, and each time it ended in regret. This is not an ordinary corporate IPO story, but a long and protracted battle of persistence, strength, game-playing, and waiting for domestic small and medium-sized chip enterprises.
| Originating in Silicon Valley, Rooted in Shenzhen In 2005, Xu Rubo and Deng Jinhui, both with Silicon Valley professional backgrounds, jointly founded FMD in Shenzhen. The two founders have been deeply engaged in the chip field for many years, accumulating a pure technological gene. Unlike the industry's pursuit of hotspots and hype of concepts in track selection, FMD has always focused on the pragmatic consumer-grade chip field, with three core products: MCU (Microcontroller Unit), EEPROM, and PMIC (Power Management IC).
These chips have no cool industry concepts and do not chase market trends, but they are the core basic components of smart hardware, widely used in smart home appliances, various sensors, industrial control boards, and other equipment, silently supporting the stable operation of terminal products.
It is precisely this low-key and pragmatic deep cultivation that has enabled FMD to grow into one of the few platform-type chip design enterprises in China with large-scale mass production capabilities for MCU, EEPROM, and PMIC products after 20 years of precipitation. The company has independently developed a dedicated EEPROM process and was awarded the title of national-level specialized, refined, differential, and innovative "little giant" enterprise relying on its solid technical strength; in the 8-bit MCU subdivision track, according to statistics from third-party industry institutions, its market scale ranks fourth in China and second among domestic manufacturers, making it a leading domestic enterprise in the subdivision field.
FMD's chip products have entered the supply chains of many well-known domestic consumer brands. Some terminal products of brands such as Supor, Flyco, Xiaomi, Roborock, Bull, and Bear Electric have adopted FMD's MCU and PMIC products, providing control and power supply support for product operation.
| Knocking on the Door Three Times Hardcore technical accumulation and mature market layout ultimately need the empowerment and amplification of the capital market. However, compared with its solid industrial foundation, the capitalization path of FMD has been full of ups and downs. It has been started and terminated several times, becoming a highly representative capital sample in the semiconductor industry.
In 2021, FMD officially submitted its IPO application for the STAR Market, initiating its first capitalization attempt. However, under the normalized regulatory background of the registration system, the company was unfortunately selected for an on-site inspection for listing. As one of the most stringent audit checkpoints for to-be-listed enterprises, the on-site inspection directly targets core issues such as the authenticity of corporate finance, business compliance, and internal control standardization. Out of prudent consideration, FMD ultimately chose to voluntarily withdraw its listing application, and the first listing journey ended hastily.
After two years of rest, FMD changed its listing track and turned to the ChiNext Board to restart its IPO. In 2023, the company officially declared ChiNext listing materials, planning to raise 606 million yuan for core chip R&D and capacity upgrade. Combined with its fundraising scale and capital structure, the market estimated its expected post-investment valuation at approximately 4.243 billion yuan.
In this application, FMD successfully completed the replies to two rounds of inquiries from the exchange, once ushering in the dawn of listing. However, after multiple rounds of audit games, in January 2024, the company's listing process was once again quietly terminated without disclosing the specific reason for termination, and the second capital sprint ended in failure again.
Two consecutive IPO failures would be enough to dissipate the listing will of most enterprises, but FMD did not stop. In August 2026, the company completed the listing tutoring filing, standing at the starting point of capitalization for the third time and starting a new round of long sprint.
| A Suddenly Ended Marriage During the gap when independent IPOs were repeatedly blocked, a backdoor listing became an alternative path for FMD to break through the capital dilemma, and a brief industrial M&A marriage thus began.
On March 3, 2025, the listed company Injoinic Technology issued an announcement that it intended to acquire 58.53% equity of FMD through a combination of "cash + directional convertible bonds" to obtain control of the company. This transaction was interpreted by the market as an industrial complementary layout: Injoinic Technology could make up for the shortcomings in MCU and storage chip businesses and improve its product matrix; FMD could use the listed company platform to achieve a backdoor listing and get rid of the IPO dilemma.
But this transaction lasted less than half a month before it ended hastily. On the evening of March 17, 2025, Injoinic Technology announced the termination of this major asset restructuring. The official disclosed reason was that "the relevant parties to the transaction failed to finally reach a consensus on core terms such as the transaction consideration of this restructuring plan," and the company's stock resumed trading from March 18.
Combined with public data and market analysis, the core contradiction of the breakdown of this transaction points to valuation differences: as of the end of the third quarter of 2024, Injoinic Technology had about 610 million yuan in cash on its books, with limited financial reserves; while market sources said that the consideration expectation of FMD's shareholders for the 58.53% equity had a large gap with the range that Injoinic Technology could afford, and the valuation cognition of both sides was difficult to bridge.
| Typical Dilemma of Domestic Chip Enterprises The development dilemma of FMD accurately summarizes the current situation of a group of domestic subdivision chip enterprises: differentiated accumulation in technology, but repeated setbacks in capital.
The company's core barriers have their unique aspects: independent and controllable EEPROM core process, platform-based product layout of MCU + storage + PMIC, and terminal customers covering many well-known consumer electronics brands, which have built a certain industry foundation and are also the confidence for its continuous deep cultivation in the track.
But at the same time, the company's operational shortcomings and capital hidden worries also objectively exist, which is also the core reason for its repeated listing obstacles. At the financial level, the company's performance has obvious fluctuations. In 2022, the net profit dropped from 166 million yuan in 2021 to 112 million yuan, and the stability of profitability is insufficient; at the operational level, the company's R&D expense ratio has long been lower than the industry average (11.47%, 10.40%, and 14.19% from 2020 to 2022, while the industry average in the same period was 13.37%, 14.09%, and 18.73%), and the intensity of R&D investment has attracted the attention of the market and regulators; at the customer level, under the distribution model, the concentration of the top five customers has increased year by year (reaching 40.27% in 2022), and there is a certain risk of distributor concentration, and the business risk resistance ability needs to be improved.
In the era wave of accelerating domestic substitution in the domestic semiconductor industry and two-way empowerment of policy and capital, FMD is a highly representative sample. It does not lack core technology, landing products, or terminal markets; what it lacks is only a smooth capital access opportunity, unable to use capital power to amplify technological advantages and break through development bottlenecks.
| Still on the Way At the turn of summer and autumn in 2026, FMD, having experienced two IPO failures and one M&A termination, once again reorganized and restarted its capitalization journey.
The equity structure shows that the company's founder and controlling shareholder Xu Rubo controls a total of 48.75% of the company's shares through direct and indirect means, possessing absolute operational control. A stable equity structure and the founder's original intention of deep cultivation in the industry give the enterprise enough patience and confidence to withstand repeated trial and error and waiting on the capital road.
This domestic chip enterprise, which has been deeply engaged in the industry for 21 years, is just like its independently developed MCU chip: not showy, not stunning, but always operating stably and full of toughness. Every "power failure and restart" on the capital road has not obliterated its original intention of breaking out, but instead precipitated more solid technology and a more mature management system.
The door to the capital market may be repeatedly delayed in opening, but it has never been completely closed. The premise of all capital breakthroughs has always been the enterprise's own persistence and growth.
The tide rises in the semiconductor track, and the sifting the sand to find gold, FMD is still persisting and still moving forward.