SiliconFlow, an independent AI token provider, has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong, reporting a net loss of 345 million yuan for 2025 even as revenue reached 55.33 million yuan. Its gross margin turned negative at -24%, while its public cloud token business posted a margin of -119%, meaning the company lost more than it earned on each transaction.
The filing highlights mounting financial pressure from both high computing costs and aggressive price cuts across the industry, raising questions about the sustainability of its current growth strategy.
price war drives negative margins
SiliconFlow’s business relies on leasing computing power from suppliers including Nvidia and Huawei’s Ascend chips, processing it through its OneFlow-based inference engine, and selling standardized tokens to developers. However, rising input costs combined with sharp industry-wide price reductions have eroded profitability.
Major competitors have slashed token prices by as much as 97.5%. DeepSeek, one of the largest players, permanently reduced prices for its V4-Pro model by 75%, intensifying competition and forcing smaller platforms to operate at a loss.
rapid growth fueled by demand surge
Despite losses, SiliconFlow saw explosive growth in early 2025 when demand surged during outages at competing platforms. Through a partnership with Huawei Cloud, the company used domestic Ascend chips to scale capacity, increasing registered users from 127,000 to 10.28 million.
Its platform reached a peak daily processing volume of 1.07 trillion tokens, making it China’s largest independent token provider. However, this rapid expansion drove losses to more than four times the previous year, while operating cash flow showed a net outflow of 172 million yuan.
betting on scale in a fast-growing market
SiliconFlow is positioning itself as a neutral infrastructure layer for AI computing, converting different chip architectures into standardized token outputs. The company has raised 7.74 billion yuan across seven funding rounds, backed by major technology firms including Alibaba, Meituan, and Huawei.
According to its filing, China’s token supply market expanded 16-fold between 2024 and 2025 and is projected to grow at an annual rate exceeding 600% over the next five years. The company recently acquired the intellectual property of OneFlow to strengthen its technology base.
Hong Kong listing reflects broader IPO momentum
The company plans to list under Hong Kong’s Chapter 18C rules, which allow pre-profit technology firms to go public. The framework has driven a surge in listings, with IPO proceeds on the exchange rising sharply in 2026.
SiliconFlow’s debut comes as similar high-growth listings show mixed performance, with some early gains followed by declines after initial trading activity.
risks remain amid heavy cash burn
SiliconFlow has accumulated nearly 440 million yuan in losses since its founding in 2023 by CEO Yuan Jinhui, a former Microsoft Research engineer. Its strategy centers on capturing market share through scale, even at the cost of sustained losses.
Market participants are likely to focus on user growth and token processing volumes as key indicators of progress, while monitoring broader risks such as upcoming share lock-up expirations that could pressure Hong Kong’s technology sector.
Curious how infrastructure tokens might trade if SiliconFlow’s IPO succeeds? Explore real-time crypto markets signals and liquidity dynamics.
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