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Shares of Chinese AI chip decorator Shanghai Biren Technology much than doubled connected their Hong Kong debut connected Friday, kicking disconnected the fiscal hub’s archetypal listing of 2026 with a bang.
Biren shares opened astatine HK$35.70 each, supra the connection terms of HK$19.60, and roseate arsenic overmuch arsenic 119% to HK$42.88.
The beardown debut follows a blockbuster twelvemonth for Hong Kong’s equity marketplace successful 2025 and heralds a question of spot and AI offerings this twelvemonth arsenic China accelerates efforts to fortify home alternatives successful effect to U.S. curbs connected exertion exports.
“Chinese AI startups are going nationalist faster than U.S. giants acknowledgment to supportive home policy, wide paths to revenues from endeavor customers, and astir importantly, a valuation tiny capable for the existent IPO market,” said Winston Ma, an adjunct prof astatine NYU School of Law and erstwhile caput of North America for CIC, China’s sovereign wealthiness fund.
“The palmy trading (so far) of AI startups exemplify a chiseled AI improvement tracks: accelerated nationalist deployment successful China focused connected integration with industries, versus slower, highly controlled backstage improvement successful the US focused connected foundational breakthroughs.”
Biren raised HK$5.58 cardinal ($717 million) by selling 284.8 cardinal H shares astatine HK$19.60 each, the apical of a marketed range.
Institutional request was astir 26 times the shares connected offer, portion the retail tranche was oversubscribed astir 2,348 times, speech filings showed.
At the connection price, Biren’s marketplace capitalisation stood astatine HK$46.9 billion, based connected 2.396 cardinal shares outstanding.
Founded successful 2019, Biren develops general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) and intelligent computing systems for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
Its co-founders see Zhang Wen, a erstwhile president astatine SenseTime, and Jiao Guofang, who antecedently worked astatine Qualcomm and Huawei.
The institution archetypal drew attraction successful 2022 with its BR100 chip, touted arsenic a home rival to precocious processors from U.S. AI person Nvidia.
Biren volition walk astir of the IPO proceeds connected probe and improvement and commercialisation, its IPO prospectus showed.
The prospectus flagged hazard from U.S. export controls aft the radical was added to Washington’s Entity List successful October 2023, which limits its entree to definite technology.
It besides cited contention and highlighted opportunities from China’s propulsion for tech self-sufficiency and argumentation support.
Cornerstone investors see 3W Fund, Qiming Venture Partners and Ping An Life Insurance, the prospectus showed.
As overmuch arsenic $36.5 cardinal was raised successful Hong Kong from 114 caller listings successful 2025, the city’s highest since 2021 and much than triple the erstwhile year, showed LSEG information astatine year-end.
A question of AI and semiconductor IPOs powered the comeback and is wide expected to propel woody travel in 2026.
Seven companies submitted A1 applications connected January 1, HKEX filings showed. One was xTool Innovate which filed an exertion for a main committee listing and appointed Morgan Stanley and Huatai Financial Holdings arsenic wide coordinators.
Separately, Chinese net hunt person Baidu said connected Friday its AI spot portion Kunlunxin has filed a Hong Kong IPO application, confirming a Reuters study successful aboriginal December.
Hong Kong’s IPO pipeline includes AI startups and chipmakers, with Zhipu AI and Iluvatar CoreX to debut adjacent connected January 8.
“Is the HK AI IPO roar sustainable? It depends connected whether planetary IPO investors, specified arsenic Middle East sovereign wealthiness funds, would bargain successful a displacement of planetary AI dominance, prioritising contiguous endeavor integration implicit semipermanent AGI research,” Ma said.
