China AI chipmaker Biren soars over 100% on Hong Kong debut as IPO wave builds
Bourse filings show that the retail tranche is oversubscribed about 2,348 times
[SINGAPORE/HONG KONG] Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI)-chip designer Shanghai Biren Technology more than doubled on their Hong Kong debut on Friday (Jan 2), kicking off the financial hub’s first listing of 2026 with a bang.
Biren shares opened at HK$35.70, above the offer price of HK$19.60, and rose as much as 119 per cent to HK$42.88.
The strong debut follows a blockbuster year for Hong Kong’s equity market in 2025, and heralds a wave of chip and AI offerings this year. This comes as China accelerates efforts to strengthen domestic alternatives, in response to the US curbs on technology exports.
“Chinese AI startups are going public faster than US giants, thanks to supportive domestic policy, clear paths to revenues from enterprise customers and most importantly, a valuation small enough for the current initial public offering (IPO) market,” said Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law and former head of North America for CIC, China’s sovereign wealth fund.
“The successful trading (so far) of AI startups illustrate a distinct AI development track – rapid public deployment in China focused on integration with industries, versus slower, highly controlled private development in the US focused on foundational breakthroughs,” he added.
Biren raised HK$5.58 billion (S$921 million) by selling 284.8 million H-shares at HK$19.60 each, the top of a marketed range.
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Institutional demand was nearly 26 times the shares on offer, while the retail tranche was oversubscribed about 2,348 times, exchange filings showed.
At the offer price, Biren’s market capitalisation stood at HK$46.9 billion, based on 2.396 billion shares outstanding.
Founded in 2019, Biren develops general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) and intelligent computing systems for AI and high-performance computing.
Its co-founders include Zhang Wen, a former president at SenseTime, and Jiao Guofang, who previously worked at Qualcomm and Huawei.
The company first drew attention in 2022 with its BR100 chip, touted as a domestic rival to advanced processors from US AI leader Nvidia.
Biren will spend most of the IPO proceeds on research and development, and commercialisation, its IPO prospectus showed.
The prospectus flagged risk from US export controls, after the group was added to Washington’s Entity List in October 2023, which limits its access to certain technology.
It also cited competition and highlighted opportunities from China’s push for tech self-sufficiency and policy support.
Cornerstone investors include 3W Fund, Qiming Venture Partners and Ping An Life Insurance, indicated the prospectus.
Chinese AI, tech pipelines
As much as US$36.5 billion was raised in Hong Kong from 114 new listings in 2025, the city’s highest since 2021 and more than triple the previous year, indicated data from financial information provider LSEG at year-end.
A wave of AI and semiconductor IPOs powered the comeback, and is widely expected to propel deal flow in 2026.
Seven companies submitted A1 applications on Jan 1, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing filings showed.
One was xTool Innovate, which filed an application for a mainboard listing, and appointed Morgan Stanley and Huatai Financial Holdings as overall coordinators.
Separately, Chinese Internet search leader Baidu said on Friday that its AI chip unit Kunlunxin has filed a Hong Kong IPO application, confirming a report made in early December.
Hong Kong’s IPO pipeline includes AI startups and chipmakers, with Zhipu AI and Iluvatar CoreX to debut next on Jan 8.
“Is the Hong Kong AI IPO boom sustainable? It depends on whether global IPO investors, such as the Middle East sovereign wealth funds, would buy in a shift of global AI dominance, prioritising immediate enterprise integration over long-term artificial generative intelligence research,” Ma said. REUTERS
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