The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is riding a listing boom driven by artificial intelligence and technology companies, even as IPO bankers elsewhere struggle with choppy markets and geopolitical uncertainty over Iran.
The list of debutants on Hong Kong’s stock exchange continues to expand, and their performances were little affected by volatility elsewhere.
Lightelligence, officially registered as Shanghai Xizhi Technology, raised HKD 2.5 billion (USD 319.1 million) in an IPO on the city’s exchange on April 28, with its publicly offered shares over 5,700 times oversubscribed. The offering was backed by a long list of blue-chip investors including Alibaba’s investment arm and Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds GIC and Temasek. At an issue price of HKD 183.2 (USD 23.4), the shares have since reached a 52-week high of HKD 998 (USD 127.5).
Lightelligence makes interconnect solutions for chips to achieve greater AI computing power as well as optical computing chips. But the company has been in the red and recorded RMB 1.3 billion (USD 190.5 million) in losses for 2025, according to its prospectus.
“Overall, investors have been optimistic about the China stock market. Given there are not that many so-called AI-related stocks listed in Hong Kong yet, appetite for these stocks is still very strong,” said Richard Wang, head of China equity capital markets at law firm Freshfields.
On April 21, Victory Giant Technology, a leading supplier of printed circuit boards to US chipmaker Nvidia, raised USD 2.6 billion in Hong Kong’s largest listing deal in 2026. The shares jumped as much as 60% on its first day of trading. Its leading investors include private equity group Hillhouse Investment and Yunfeng Capital, which is backed by Chinese businessman and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.
A week prior, AI software company Manycore Tech rose 185% during its debut day, raising around USD 156 million. The long-anticipated float made the company the first to be listed among the so-called “six little dragons” of Hangzhou, which includes DeepSeek and Unitree Robotics.
The resurgence is underpinned by a shift among investors towards “hard tech” and “new economy” companies. It also coincides with a significant rise in A-to-H listings, in which companies already listed on mainland China exchanges pursue dual listings in Hong Kong, according to a Goldman Sachs note published on April 19.
At the start of the year, Chinese AI and chip companies rode a stock market rally to raise billions of US dollars through Hong Kong listings, supported by domestic and international investors alike.
In the first quarter, 38 companies raised a combined USD 13.3 billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, data from the London Stock Exchange Group shows, outpacing the amounts from Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange combined. It also marked the busiest first quarter for bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) since 2021. The number includes secondary listings and excludes special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).
According to the Hong Kong exchange, 409 listing applications from companies are currently “under processing” as of the end of March. This long list has kept expectations high for overall deal volume in 2026.
Goldman Sachs expects around USD 60 billion to be raised this year from new listings in Hong Kong.
The blockbuster performance of certain new listings has also contrasted with a wider downturn in the Hong Kong market. The Hang Seng Tech index was down 11.7% since the beginning of the year as of the market close on April 30, while the broader Hang Seng Index was remaining flat, trailing over 3% positive performance for the mainland’s CSI300 index.
Meanwhile, newly listed AI-related stocks have outperformed the benchmarks: MiniMax, a Chinese large model developer, has more than quadrupled compares to its listing price. Knowledge Atlas Technology, better known as Zhipu AI or Z.ai internationally, has surged more than sevenfold since its debut.
“Investors choose to express their views on the China AI story through specific names, rather than the broader index, this is a major difference from last year,” Jason Lui, head of Asia-Pacific equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas, said during a briefing on April 29.
Lui added that the new AI-related IPO deals have also led to investors reallocating capital away from large internet platform companies into specific AI companies.
While authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing have openly supported the flurry of listings, there have been signs of increased scrutiny over market practices.
Since late 2025, the city’s IPO boom has caught the attention of financial regulators and sparked worries about the quality of deals, after some companies’ shares flopped soon after debuting. The Securities and Futures Commission and the HKEX have flagged concerns for the poor quality of some offering documents and questioned the viability of certain businesses seeking listing.
In March, officers from Hong Kong’s securities watchdog and anti-corruption unit raided three companies and made eight arrests amid an investigation into insider trading.
Wang said that currently, getting approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is among the factors determining how fast companies can list in Hong Kong. “I believe that in the first quarter, the CSRC approval process has accelerated compared to last year. That could push the full-year deal number for 2026 beyond last year’s.”
Under a rule from 2023, the Chinese securities regulator asks Chinese companies to make a filing within three days of an overseas listing submission.
The market now expects a slowdown in the second half of the year, said Wang, “partly because in the first four months of the year the market has been so hot—probably the busiest period of my career”.
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.
Note: HKD, RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of HKD 7.84 = USD 1 and RMB 6.82 = USD 1 based on estimates as of May 7, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.