HKEX Insight

Hong Kong ECM had an exceptional start to 2026, as the market accounted for over a third of global fundraising over the first quarter and topped IPO fundraising rankings.

Year-on-year, total ECM capital raised rose 45% to US$30.6 billion while Q1 IPO proceeds jumped 454% to US$13.3 billion – nearly a fifth of which came from listings under HKEX’s Chapter 18C.

Q1 2026 saw a surge in activity via the chapter, which provides a listing pathway for specialist technology companies from robotics and autonomous driving to AI and aerospace sectors.

Fundraising over the quarter through Chapter 18C reached US$2.5 billion – more than twice as much as all fundraising through the chapter in the past two years combined – as six companies listed compared with five across all of 2025.



Setting the pace was a flurry of prominent AI sector listings in the opening months of 2026 that included pioneering AI platform developers, robotics companies and chip designers.

Many were heavily subscribed and saw strong performances on listing day, with all six Chapter 18C listings in Q1 2026 recording positive first-day performance.

Successive listing reforms since 2018 have established Hong Kong’s markets as a hub for innovation, and the growing momentum through Chapter 18C reinforces this evolution. 

The TMT sector now drives over 40% of cash market turnover in Hong Kong and the market ranked as the top IPO venue for TMT and AI industry listings globally in Q1 2026, with eight of the world’s 10 largest TMT IPOs so far this year – including two Chapter 18C companies.

Chapter 18C has created a public market entry point for investors seeking direct exposure to the AI cycle, and 14 of the 15 listed 18C companies as of end-April 2026 come from across the AI value chain.

At the platform level, two 18C companies – MiniMax and Zhipu AI – became the first listed large language model companies in the world when they went public in January 2026.

The infrastructure layer – including semiconductors, chips and hardware enabling AI workloads – is also accessing capital through 18C, with AI chip designers Biren Technology and Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor listing in January 2026.

Likewise, Chapter 18C has enabled companies commercialising AI for specific use cases to access growth capital, from industrial robots firm OneRobotics to autonomous driving technology developer CiDi Inc.

Strong institutional backing from a wide range of cornerstone investors, including sovereign wealth funds, long-only funds and Chinese Mainland funds, is a common denominator among recent Chapter 18C listings.

Beijing-based Zhipu AI secured the highest cornerstone participation among major Hong Kong listings for the quarter.

Meanwhile, MiniMax was nearly 37-times oversubscribed by institutional investors – compared with the quarter’s average 14-fold institutional subscription across Hong Kong IPOs with a deal size of US$100 million or more.

These companies are turning to Chapter 18C as it offers a route to Hong Kong’s public markets for specialist technology businesses that are still scaling revenues but investing heavily in research & development.

The listing chapter facilitates capital formation while maintaining investor protection through tailored eligibility, disclosure and continuing obligation requirements.

Further, enhancements in 2025 such as the launch of the Technology Enterprises Channel (TECH) and allowing specialist technology issuers to file confidentially have added to the convenience and attractiveness of Hong Kong’s market for technology issuers.

These developments contribute to an already extensive innovation fundraising ecosystem here in Hong Kong, propelled in recent years by landmark reforms such as the introduction of pre‑revenue biotech listings under Chapter 18A, weighted voting rights (WVR) structures for innovative companies under Chapter 8A, and the SPAC regime.

The market capitalisation thresholds for commercial and pre-commercial companies under Chapter 18C were temporarily reduced in August 2024 effective through August 2027.

And enhancements continue across the other chapters, with a consultation process now underway to further optimise the WVR listing requirements to keep pace with the market’s evolution.

Key proposals include lowering thresholds to market capitalisation, expanding the scope of technology companies presumed to be innovative, and widening eligibility to include non-technology issuers applying a new business model.

And the second quarter of 2026 is starting strong, with US$5.2 billion in IPO fundraising in April, bringing IPO issuance year-to-date up nearly six-fold year-on-year.

The momentum continues for Chapter 18C as well. After six debuts through the chapter in the first quarter, April 2026 saw the listing of AI computing chip developer Shanghai Xizhi Technology, more commonly known as Lightelligence.

The US$323 million IPO – the first listing by an AI optical computing company globally – garnered considerable cornerstone investment and is among the most oversubscribed listings by retail investors so far this year.

What began as a regulatory accommodation for pre-revenue technology firms has rapidly matured into a core equity capital channel, and looking at public IPO filings alone, 14 companies have submitted via Chapter 18C as of end-April 2026.



The breadth of Hong Kong's innovation ecosystem – anchored by listing reforms including Chapter 18C – now attracts large, established innovative companies to Hong Kong even via the Main Board listing route, with sectors from EVs and semiconductors to fintech choosing the city as their listing venue of choice. 

As new verticals from robotics to autonomous driving and AI move from prototype to platform, HKEX is where innovation has become investible.

18C, Explained		Q1 2026 Hong Kong Market Update		AI IPOs Drive a Strong Start to 2026