China's AI boom ignites the capital market, with Hong Kong stocks' Q1 financing volume reaching a five-year high

Driven by the sustained surge of activity in China’s artificial intelligence sector, the financing scale of Hong Kong’s stock market in the first quarter of 2026 hit a five-year high, ranking near the top among major global exchanges, and reaffirming its position as the preferred destination for overseas listings of Chinese companies.

According to Dealogic and LSEG data, the total amount raised from Hong Kong IPOs and follow-on offerings in the first quarter of 2026 was about $14 billion, the best first-quarter performance since 2021, surpassing Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Mumbai exchange. The two most standout new listings this year—AI company Zhipu and MiniMax—have both recorded cumulative gains of over 400% since going public, reflecting investors’ strong willingness to compete for exposure to China’s AI.

Jason Lui, Head of APAC equities and derivatives strategy at BPI, said that when DeepSeek sparked market attention in 2025, investors mainly gained AI exposure through large-cap technology stocks within index funds; while this year has already seen listings of pure-play AI labs and AI hardware-related listed targets, offering more precise tools for investors who want to place a direct bet on China’s artificial intelligence industry.

The rise of pure-play AI targets leads global fundraising in Hong Kong

Technology hardware and software companies dominate this year’s Hong Kong IPO statistics, highlighting Hong Kong’s strategic value as a funding hub for overseas financing by Chinese companies—these businesses urgently need capital to support overseas expansion and R&D spending. The strong performance of Zhipu and MiniMax marks a deepening shift in the market’s investment logic for China’s AI: since Zhipu listed in Hong Kong in January this year, its share price has risen by more than 400%.

Jason Lui noted that, compared with 2025 when investors indirectly participated in the AI trend through broad-market technology indexes, this year’s emergence of pure-play AI labs and AI hardware companies has given investors who want to express a clear bullish stance on China’s artificial intelligence industry more targeted deployment tools.

At present, more than 400 companies are already in the filing and review pipeline for Hong Kong IPOs, and agri-chemicals firm Sinochem Holdings is also considering listing in Hong Kong, showing that overall market enthusiasm remains at a high level.

Mainland market regains appeal, with AI firms returning to the STAR Market

Meanwhile, mainland capital markets are quietly re-entering some technology firms’ shortlist of listing destinations. Media reports citing two capital market advisers indicate that some technology companies are considering switching their listing venue back to Shanghai or Shenzhen.

A fund manager at the Beijing venture capital firm mentioned above said that some of their investees—mainly in the AI, quantum computing, and neurotechnology sectors—are assessing the feasibility of listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market. While listing in the mainland still faces relatively high regulatory thresholds, technology companies holding strategic intellectual property can receive a green channel to accelerate approval; this policy tilt is driving a rebound in the STAR Market’s appeal to frontier technology companies.

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