--- title: "Two of China's 'AI Tigers' Listed in 24 Hours — Is Hong Kong Becoming the AI Float of Choice?" date: 2026-09-23 category: Capital & Markets site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-capital-ai-ipo-china language: en --- # Two of China's 'AI Tigers' Listed in 24 Hours — Is Hong Kong Becoming the AI Float of Choice? > In January 2026, generative-AI pioneers Zhipu and MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange within a day of each other, kicking off a wider China AI capital wave that also lifted an AI-chip designer and a brain-computer interface startup. For years, China's brightest AI labs watched their Western peers grab the IPO spotlight while they stayed private and quietly burned cash. This winter, the script flipped — and the venue was neither New York nor Shanghai, but Hong Kong. Within a single day, two of the country's most-watched generative-AI startups walked onto the exchange floor and into the public markets. The message to global investors was blunt: you no longer have to buy the "AI concept stocks" when you can now own the labs themselves. ## The first "large model" IPO On 8 January 2026, Beijing-based Zhipu — formally Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC Ltd and known in China as 智谱 — listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company bills itself as the world's first publicly traded firm built on general-purpose AI foundation models, a milestone widely described at home as the first "large model (大模型)" IPO. The numbers were loud: - **HK$4.3 billion (≈ US$558 million)** raised at an issue price of **HK$116.2 per share**. - Shares opened at **HK$120** and touched **HK$130** intraday — about **+11.88%** — pushing market value above **HK$57 billion**. - The Hong Kong public tranche was **oversubscribed 1,159 times**; the international tranche **15.28 times**. - **11 cornerstone investors** — Beijing state capital, top insurers and major funds — took **HK$2.98 billion**, roughly **70%** of the offer. Zhipu was spun out of Tsinghua University in 2019 and counts Alibaba and Tencent among its backers. Chairman Liu Debing (刘德兵) framed the listing as the moment "general-purpose large models first reached the public market." The firm is still loss-making: it reported a net loss of about **¥2.36 billion (≈ US$330 million / HK$2.57 billion)** in the first half of 2025, with R&D spend of **¥1.59 billion (≈ US$222 million)** — roughly eight times its revenue for the period. ## The 29-year-old upstart One day later, on 9 January 2026, Shanghai's **MiniMax Group** (0100.HK) followed. It is the youngest of the cohort: founded at the end of 2021 by Yan Junjie (闫俊杰), a former SenseTime researcher. MiniMax is one of only a handful of global labs with a full multimodal model lineup in the top tier. - Indicated raise of **HK$3.8–4.2 billion (≈ US$490–540 million)**. - **14 cornerstone investors** — including Alibaba, Abu Dhabi's ADIA and Boyu Capital — subscribed **HK$2.723 billion**. - The public tranche drew an eye-watering **1,209 times** oversubscription. - Per its prospectus, MiniMax had **212 million users across more than 200 countries**, with **overseas revenue above 70%** of the total and revenue up **170% year-on-year** in the first nine months of 2025. Two of the so-called "AI six tigers (AI六小虎)" had gone public within 24 hours of each other — a first for China's model industry. ## The chip and the brain The wave was not only about model labs. Two other 2026 deals round out the picture of where China's AI capital actually flowed. **BiRen (壁仞科技, 6082.HK)**, a domestic GPU designer, listed on 2 January 2026 — the first GPU stock in Hong Kong and the largest "specialist technology" (18C) IPO there to date. It raised **US$717 million before the over-allotment option**, rising to **US$825 million (≈ HK$6.4 billion)** if fully exercised, at a market value north of **HK$80 billion**. Twenty-three cornerstone investors took about **US$373 million**. And **BrainCo (强脑科技)**, a non-invasive brain-computer interface (脑机接口) company founded by Harvard alumnus Han Bicheng (韩璧丞), closed a roughly **¥2.0 billion (≈ US$280 million / HK$2.18 billion)** Series C in early 2026 — reported as the second-largest single brain-computer interface raise globally after Neuralink. Backers included IDG, Walden International, and contract manufacturers such as Lens Technology (蓝思科技). ## Why Hong Kong, and what it signals HKEX's own data tells the scale: across December 2025 and January 2026, **12 AI value-chain companies** listed in Hong Kong, together raising roughly **US$4.9 billion**. They spanned infrastructure (chips), platforms (models) and applications — a far more complete ecosystem than the "concept stock" trades of previous cycles. Hong Kong offered something the mainland exchanges and a US listing both struggled to provide at once: international capital access without the geopolitical scrutiny of a Washington float, plus a purpose-built 18C regime for pre-profit hard-tech firms. For labs burning billions on R&D, that combination is the point. ## Honest limitations Figures are drawn from HKEX, company prospectuses, and reporting by CGTN, China Daily, Shanghai Securities News, Xinhua and Hubei Daily. MiniMax's raise is the **pre-pricing indicated range**, not a final settled tally. BrainCo's round was reported by Chinese media; no independent audited filing was available to cross-check the exact amount, and the "second-largest after Neuralink" superlative comes from those reports. Intraday share moves (Zhipu's +11.88%, BiRen's first-day pop) are snapshots, not investment guidance. Most of these names are not yet profitable — Zhipu's ~¥2.36B H1-2025 loss and BiRen's pre-profit status show that a successful listing is not the same as a sustainable business. This article describes capital markets activity; it is not investment advice. ## What readers can do now - **Track the HKEX new-economy pipeline.** The remaining members of the "AI six tigers (AI六小虎)" and other model labs are the names to watch for follow-on floats. - **Separate the listing story from the earnings story.** Before reading the hype, open the prospectus and look at R&D burn, path to profit, and overseas revenue mix. - **For the chip and brain-computer interface (脑机接口) tracks, watch policy and clinical or export milestones** — not just financing headlines — since those are what will decide whether the capital translates into durable businesses. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-capital-ai-ipo-china Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.