RRP Semiconductor Ltd, until recently a little-known Indian company, has become a global outlier after an extraordinary share-price surge of more than 55,000% in the 20 months through December 17, making it the best-performing stock worldwide among firms valued above $1 billion. This spectacular rise came even though the company reported negative revenue in its latest results, disclosed having just two full-time employees in its last annual report, and has only a loose connection to the global semiconductor investment wave after pivoting away from real estate in early 2024. A potent mix of online hype, a very small free float and India’s rapidly growing retail investor base powered 149 consecutive upper-circuit sessions, even as the exchange and the company itself issued cautions to investors.
The rally is now faltering, and regulators have begun to scrutinise the stock. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has started probing the surge in RRP’s share price for possible irregularities, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the inquiry is confidential. The roughly $1.7 billion stock, which the exchange has recently limited to trading just once a week, has slipped about 6% from its November 7 peak.
RRP’s extreme trajectory is unlikely to derail the broader artificial-intelligence rally that has added trillions of dollars in market value to global giants like Nvidia Corp. But it underlines how stretched gains have become in specific pockets of the market, particularly in India, where the lack of listed chipmakers has left retail investors hungry for any indirect exposure to the semiconductor and AI theme. For some observers, the saga also highlights the difficulty regulators face in shielding small investors from speculative excess.
“Semiconductors have been really hot and people are willing to buy any name given India has limited stocks to offer,” said Sonam Srivastava, founder at Wryght Research & Capital Pvt. With global concerns growing over AI valuations, cases like RRP suggest investors may be more cautious about piling into such names.
AI Euphoria And Regional Warnings
Across Asia, exchanges and chipmakers have begun warning traders about the risks of chasing hot AI-related stocks. In Shanghai, newly listed AI-chip startup Moore Threads Technology Co. dropped 13% on December 12 after flagging trading risks, though the share price is still more than 500% above its market debut earlier in the month. In South Korea, SK Hynix Inc. fell after the main exchange raised its risk alert on December 11, following a more than threefold rise in its share price in 2025.
A spokesperson for BSE Ltd, where RRP is listed, said all surveillance actions around the stock have been communicated via market circulars. RRP Electronics, owned by RRP Group founder Rajendra Chodankar, declined to answer Bloomberg News queries on the stock rally and regulatory steps, citing an ongoing legal appeal.
How RRP Was Reshaped
RRP’s transformation started in early 2024, when Chodankar whose background includes specialised products such as thermal imaging systems and weapon-drone cameras agreed to take over G D Trading and Agencies Ltd by repaying an 80 million-rupee loan owed to its founders in exchange for equity. On April 23, the board approved issuing him and several others shares at 12 rupees each, a 40% discount to the market price. The move handed Chodankar a 74.5% stake and reduced the founders’ holding to below 2%. The company also decided to rename itself RRP Semiconductor.
Two months before that, Chodankar had incorporated RRP Electronics Pvt. to set up an outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing plant in Maharashtra a connection that may have helped fuel the narrative linking the listed entity to his private semiconductor venture. At a September 2024 event for RRP Electronics’ new unit in Navi Mumbai, he told reporters: “India is going to be a superhuman, it’s established beyond doubt.” Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar also attended, according to YouTube videos posted by RRP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s semiconductor initiative announced in 2021 a 760 billion-rupee incentive package has attracted about $18 billion in announced investments from Micron Technology, Tata Group, Foxconn and HCL Technologies. In its filings, RRP Semiconductor lists RRP Electronics as a related party because both are owned by Chodankar, but notes it does not hold a direct equity stake in the private company.
Ultra-tight float, old bans and regulatory red flags
Despite that, some investors started treating RRP Semiconductor as a proxy play on the semiconductor boom. That enthusiasm obscured how little of its stock was actually available to trade: about 98% of shares are held by Chodankar and a small group of associates, many of whom feature across other RRP-linked entities, including RRP Defense, Indian Link Chain Manufacturers, RRP Electronics and RRP S4E Innovation, according to filings with the BSE and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
In April this year, the exchange withdrew approval for the company’s share sale, a decision RRP has challenged in an appeals court, with the verdict still pending. In October, the exchange issued a warning to investors, a year after placing the stock under its strictest surveillance regime. The reversal came after a September 2024 reminder from SEBI that the company was barred from accessing the securities market because it belongs to the founder group of Shree Vindhya Paper Mills, a firm delisted by the BSE in 2017 for non-compliance, which triggered a 10-year market ban.
A person familiar with the BSE’s handling of the case said the exchange suffered an “internal lapse” when processing the offering and may seek SEBI’s guidance on extending the lock-in on the shares until the appeal is resolved. The BSE spokesperson said that in its original application, the company had stated that it, its founders and directors were not directly or indirectly prohibited from accessing the market, and that the exchange’s approval was based on this declaration.
As the stock price rocketed from 20 rupees in April 2024, governance changes followed. Chodankar, the largest shareholder, resigned from the board, while the chief financial officer quit and later returned as company secretary. The company also filed a police complaint against a social-media influencer over alleged rumours about supposed links to Sachin Tendulkar and to state-allotted land for chip manufacturing.
In a November 3 exchange filing, RRP said it “has yet to start any sort of semiconductor manufacturing activities,” has not applied under government incentive schemes, and denied any celebrity association.
Weak Numbers, Fading Hype
The company’s financials have done little to support the gravity-defying share move. RRP reported negative revenue of 68.2 million rupees and a net loss of 71.5 million rupees for the quarter ended September. The negative revenue stemmed from reversing sales booked in the three months ended December 2024 tied to a 4.4-billion-rupee order secured in November from Telecrown Infratech Pvt. The contract was later cancelled due to “contractual disagreements,” the company said in a filing, adding that it had also reversed 80 million rupees of revenue in the March quarter.
These weak numbers arrive at a sensitive moment for the stock. As the AI frenzy cools and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, the downside risk now rests with investors who chased the rally and with Chodankar, who effectively controls almost the entire free float.
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