HKEX Insight

The “DeepSeek Moment” of January 2025 was a tipping point for investors to shift their focus back to China and Chinese technology.

One year on, momentum is building with a host of new companies from across the AI value chain going public in Hong Kong, raising US$4.9 billion in December and January.

These developments mean that investors can now – for the first time – look beyond AI proxy stocks to direct investment opportunities in frontier companies from across the China AI value chain.

The listing of Minimax and Zhipu, HKEX’s first Chinese Mainland generative AI platforms and two of China’s six “AI tigers”, on 8 and 9 January, respectively, are just two out of a total of 12 companies working across the AI value chain – including AI infrastructure and AI applications – that have listed in Hong Kong in December and January.

^{Source: HKEX, Dealogic, data as of 2 February 2026}

From their places across the value chain, these companies are creating a new ecosystem of issuers.

It’s an ecosystem supported by Hong Kong’s robust listing regime for tech companies; vibrant, liquid markets that connect international and Chinese Mainland capital; and a multi-asset product offering.

And it adds to the many other issuer ecosystems at HKEX, including biotech, new energy, autonomous vehicles and robotics, that have taken shape in recent years and underscored Hong Kong’s position as a leading fundraising hub for innovation.

We are confident that the AI listings trend of recent months is just the start.

In short, that’s because the conditions are right: Gartner estimates that global AI investment will exceed US$2 trillion in 2026 (2025: US$1.5 trillion), and the future pipeline of new companies looks promising – AI companies attracted an estimated US$211 billion in venture capital in 2025, up 85% compared with 2024, according to Crunchbase.

Here in Hong Kong, that momentum is already visible: the public listings pipeline shows around 20 companies from across the AI value chain, with the majority operating in platform‑driven segments such as enterprise AI, marketing AI, data and business intelligence solutions, and other software‑centric applications.

Alongside these are a smaller cluster of industrial‑focused AI innovators – spanning robotics, spatial and space‑time intelligence, and intelligent security – complemented by a select group developing compute‑related models that integrate AI algorithms with chip or infrastructure layers.

Together, this emerging cohort reflects the depth and diversity of innovation now gravitating toward our markets, reinforcing Hong Kong’s role as a natural home for the next generation of AI companies poised for growth.

A diverse range of cornerstone investors has been active in AI company listings.

Listings in January by companies involved in the modelling and training space – Biren Technology, Zhipu, Iluvatar, and MiniMax – attracted strong support, with long-only funds prominent and interest coming from not only Chinese Mainland investors but by institutions based in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Korea, Switzerland and the US, demonstrating broad international interest in China’s leading AI companies.

Of the US$2.5 billion raised by these four companies, cornerstone investors committed an estimated US$1.3 billion, amounting to an average cornerstone take-up of 58% of the total base deal size, underlining Hong Kong’s superconnector role in bringing high-quality capital to frontier tech.

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The recent influx of AI issuers has been facilitated by enhancements to HKEX’s listing regime that have removed friction and widened listing eligibility for tech companies.

These include the technology enterprises channel (TECH), which offers early guidance and confidential filing for companies under Chapter 18C – a listing path for specialist technology firms – and Mechanism B, a redesigned IPO allocation that improves investor allocation visibility and strengthens price discovery. Taken together, these developments lower execution risk, reduce time‑to‑market and align books with price‑setting institutional capital.

Potential issuers operating in the AI space are particularly well-served by these enhancements, since many such companies are IP‑sensitive, fast‑iterating and pre‑profit.

AI issuers can plug into a multi‑asset market ecosystem with a Hong Kong listing. The recently launched HKEX Tech 100 Index is one example and includes a fast‑entry mechanism so eligible Southbound‑qualified new tech stocks can join without going through regular reviews.

And with HKEX’s recent licensing agreement with E-Fund set to introduce a Chinese Mainland exchange-traded fund tracking the Tech 100, this new product ecosystem enhancement will potentially connect Hong Kong-listed tech companies with Chinese Mainland capital.

January has started strong, with US$3.7 billion raised year-to-date via IPOs as of 23 January 2026, compared with US$0.8 billion raised across all of January 2025.

Looking ahead, HKEX currently has a robust listing pipeline of more than 350 companies.

The momentum that gathered around Chinese innovation after last year’s “DeepSeek Moment” continues to build, and HKEX is connecting capital to this generational opportunity through continuous enhancements and product launches, establishing Hong Kong as a liquid, vibrant and diverse fundraising hub for innovation.