Chinese AI, chip firms drive offshore IPO rebound

Written by Kane Wu and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, June 26 (Reuters) – China’s tech IPOs are on track for their strongest year since 2023 as Beijing seeks to boost listings of chip and artificial intelligence companies in a bid to boost its tech confidence amid the country’s standoff with the US

Technology companies raised a total of 3.1 billion yuan in China’s stock market listings this year through June 18, five times the volume of the year-ago period, according to LSEG data.

About 50 companies, including robotics startups and semiconductor firms, have filed for initial public offerings in Shanghai and Shenzhen, with plans to raise at least 126.1 billion yuan ($18.7 billion), according to a Reuters tally based on filings.

One of the listing hopefuls, memory-chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), plans to launch a 29.5 billion yuan IPO, which would be the largest this year and raise the total amount of listings to a three-year high, LSEG data showed.

The rise in offshore listings comes as Chinese regulators said on June 17 they would support the listing of startups in “future industries” such as quantum technology, nuclear fusion and brain-computer interfaces.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange has also published rules to facilitate the sale of public shares by major language model companies on the STAR Market as part of its efforts to encourage home-grown AI companies.

“The acceleration of technology IPOs has provided long-awaited exit opportunities for private equity and venture capital that backed these companies,” said Li He, head of law firm Davis Polk’s Asia (formerly Japan).

The tech IPO push comes amid a China-US technology war and marks a reversal of a listing hiatus that has been in place since 2024, when some domestic companies are rushing to list in Hong Kong to raise capital overseas.

Annual revenue from listed tech companies in China fell to $2.7 billion in 2024 from $15.7 billion in 2023, before rebounding to $3.6 billion in 2025, LSEG data showed, compared to $6.6 billion raised by Chinese tech companies in Hong Kong in 2025.

‘DEEP POOL OF CAPITAL’

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), in a speech at a high-level financial forum in Shanghai earlier this month, said it would reimburse eligible Hong Kong-listed companies seeking foreign listings.

Kenny Ng, strategist at China Everbright Securities International, said CSRC support can expand access to international markets and improve capital availability.

“If companies from other regions listed in Hong Kong can be included in the future, it can provide investors with a variety of choices and bring better capital to the market,” said Ng.

Zhipu AI, which raised HK$4.35 billion ($555.2 million) in a Hong Kong IPO in January, for example, aims to raise 15 billion yuan in a STAR Market listing, it said earlier this month.

Baidu’s chip unit, Kunlunxin, which is awaiting regulatory approval for a $2 billion listing in Hong Kong, is planning a small domestic plane, said a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Baidu and Kunlunxin did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Ho-Yin Lee, head of technology and communications for Asia-Pacific at Citigroup, said a mainland listing would help Hong Kong-listed companies reach a wider market and domestic investors.

“They will have access to more capital, business growth funding and local advertising,” Lee said.

Hopes for a revival in the domestic listing market were also fueled by strong investor demand for the latest mainland tech IPOs.

SJ Semiconductor Corp has risen more than eightfold from its IPO price. Shares of Semight Instruments have jumped nearly 28 times from their IPO price.

“The acquisition of Chinese technology is part of a global AI wave, and China and the US are two markets that are making the situation better,” said James Wang, head of Asia ex-Japan equity markets at Goldman Sachs.

($1 = 6.7573 Chinese yuan renminbi)

($1 = 7.8352 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Additional reporting by Li Gu in Shanghai and Summer Zhen in Hong Kong; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Thomas Derpinghaus)