China is experiencing a renewed wave of semiconductor and artificial intelligence company public offerings, following the successful Hong Kong listing of AI chipmaker Biren.
An increasing number of Chinese technology firms are choosing Hong Kong as their preferred listing venue:
- it offers access to international capital while maintaining alignment with domestic industrial policy
- it avoids the higher political and regulatory risks associated with U.S. markets.
This trend reflects a broader diplomatic strategy: positioning Hong Kong as a financial bridge between China and global investors.
Within this broader trend, two Chinese semiconductor companies, Montage Technology and Axera Semiconductor, have launched share offerings in Hong Kong, seeking to raise a combined HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion).
- Montage, which focuses on chips that accelerate data transmission in servers and data centres, is aiming for up to HK$7.04 billion through a secondary listing. The offering involves 65.9 million H shares at a maximum price of HK$106.89.The transaction has secured strong institutional backing, with 17 cornerstone investors committing a combined $450 million, including JPMorgan Asset Management, UBS Asset Management (Singapore) and Yunfeng Capital.
- Axera, designer of AI inference system-on-chips, is targeting HK$2.96 billion in an initial public offering, offering 104.9 million shares at HK$28.20 each, with trading expected in early February.
These two deals cover two key parts of the semiconductor industry: chips that connect data centres and chips that run AI directly on devices reflecting the broad growth in China’s domestic chip sector.
These recent offerings follow other notable technology listings earlier in the year.
- OmniVision Integrated Circuits Group, producer of image sensor chips (in simpler terms: these chips are the reason cameras can “see”) raised approximately HK$4.8 billion in its Hong Kong secondary listing; shares jumped about 16.2%, closing at HK$121.80 versus the offer price of HK$104.80.
- Meanwhile, MiniMax, an AI startup focused on multimodal large-language models, raised up to HK$4.19 billion in its IPO with shares which surged about 109% on their Hong Kong debut.
Together, these transactions reinforce Hong Kong’s role as a central fundraising hub for China’s semiconductor and AI sectors: as Hong Kong continues to absorb a growing share of strategic technology listings, reliance on U.S. capital markets is becoming less essential. The approximate total of these IPO proceeds/funds raised estimates HK$24.57 billion. In just the first month of the year, semiconductor and AI-related companies have already raised almost 9% of the entire amount raised by all listings in Hong Kong during 2025.
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