--- title: "Hong Kong's 2024 tech-IPO wave was Chinese robot and chip makers — and only one opened above its offer price" date: 2026-11-10 category: Capital & Markets site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-capital-robot-ipo-wave language: en --- # Hong Kong's 2024 tech-IPO wave was Chinese robot and chip makers — and only one opened above its offer price > Three China-based robotics and self-driving suppliers — RoboSense, Black Sesame, and Horizon Robotics — listed in Hong Kong in 2024, raising a combined ~US$953M, but most debuted in the red. A LiDAR maker rang the bell in Hong Kong in early January 2024, then watched its shares do nothing. Seven months later, a chip designer opened a third below what it had just charged investors. By October, a self-driving computing firm pulled off the year's biggest Hong Kong listing — and still ended its first day barely above the offer. ## Key takeaways - Three China-based robotics and autonomous-driving suppliers listed on HKEX in 2024: RoboSense (速腾聚创) in January, Black Sesame (黑芝麻智能) in August, and Horizon Robotics (地平线机器人) in October. - Combined gross proceeds were about HK$7.43 billion (≈ US$953M) across the three deals. - Two of the three closed their trading debut at or below the offer price; only Horizon opened and traded up. - All three were loss-making at the time of listing, underscoring that Hong Kong's hardtech window favors growth and technology position over near-term profitability. ## A January debut that went nowhere RoboSense Technology (速腾聚创, stock code 2498), a LiDAR (激光雷达) sensor and perception-software supplier, became the first company to list on the Hong Kong exchange in 2024. It priced its global offering at HK$43.00 per share and sold 22,909,800 shares, raising gross proceeds of HK$985.12 million (≈ US$126M) and net proceeds of HK$877.01 million (≈ US$112M), according to its HKEX final price and allocation announcement. On its first trading day, January 5, the stock opened at HK$43.00 — exactly the offer price — and closed unchanged at HK$43.00, even as the broader market slipped. With a market capitalization near HK$19.3 billion on debut, RoboSense was billed as the first LiDAR (激光雷达) stock on the exchange and, at the time, the world's highest-valued LiDAR company. Its largest pre-IPO shareholder was Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba, at 10.46%; a Nanshan district government fund took up roughly 79% of the shares on offer as a cornerstone investor, subscribing about HK$781.2 million. ## A chip designer that opened a third below Black Sesame International Holding (黑芝麻智能, stock code 02533), a supplier of automotive-grade computing system-on-chips (SoC, 系统级芯片), listed on August 8. It set its final offer price at HK$28.00 per share and issued 37,000,000 shares, for gross proceeds of HK$1,036.0 million (≈ US$133M) and net proceeds of HK$950.8 million (≈ US$122M), per its HKEX announcement. The debut was painful: shares opened at HK$18.80, about 33% below the offer price, and closed at HK$20.45, down 26.96% on the day, with a market cap of about HK$11.64 billion (≈ US$1.49B). According to its listing document, Black Sesame was the world's third-largest supplier of automotive-grade high-compute SoCs by 2023 shipments, citing Frost & Sullivan. Like RoboSense, it was loss-making at the time of listing — a reminder that the "chip" half of the robotics-and-chip wave is still paying for capacity before it pays dividends. ## October's blockbuster that still finished flat Horizon Robotics (地平线机器人, stock code 9660), a provider of advanced driver-assistance (ADAS, 高级辅助驾驶) and autonomous-driving (AD, 自动驾驶) computing solutions, listed on October 24 and dominated the year's Hong Kong calendar. It priced at the top of its range, HK$3.99 per share, and sold 1,355,106,600 shares, raising gross proceeds of HK$5,407 million (≈ US$693M) and net proceeds of HK$5,142 million (≈ US$659M), according to its HKEX final price announcement. Reuters reported the deal as the largest Hong Kong IPO of 2024 and the biggest tech-sector listing there since SenseTime raised US$740 million in late 2021. Shares opened at HK$5.12, up 28.3% from the offer, though they later gave back most of the gain to close at HK$4.10, just 2.8% above the offer price. Cornerstone investors — including units of Alibaba and Baidu, a Ningbo government-linked fund, and a French family office — committed about US$220 million, and existing investor Baillie Gifford bought roughly US$260 million of stock, about 37% of the deal, per exchange filings. ## What the three listings tell us The pattern is consistent: Hong Kong in 2024 became the default overseas venue for Chinese hardtech firms that are large, strategic, and still burning cash. None of the three was profitable at listing. RoboSense and Black Sesame relied on small "mini-IPOs" — issuing well under 10% of post-listing shares — a structure that limits dilution but also leaves a thin free float that can swing on a few orders. According to Li An, chief scientist at BrainNet (脑机网), the clustering of robotics and chip listings in Hong Kong reflects a structural shift: founders now treat the city as a financing bridge between mainland R&D and global capital, rather than a mere exit. ## One common thread: proceeds go to R&D, not profit All three directed the bulk of proceeds to research and capacity. RoboSense said it would spend about 45% of proceeds on R&D and team expansion; Black Sesame earmarked about 80% of net proceeds for R&D over five years; Horizon pointed to product development and strategic investments. That tilt is typical of the sector and explains why investors are buying revenue growth and technology position, not current earnings. For an observatory tracking real financing — not A-share "concept stock" hype — the useful signal is the size and durability of that R&D commitment, not the opening-day pop. ## Honest limitations - This article covers only three Hong Kong listings in 2024 and does not survey the full HKEX hardtech pipeline, including firms that filed but later withdrew or delayed. - First-day share performance is a narrow lens; it says little about 12-month returns or post-listing fundamentals, and two of these names have traded well below their offers since. - Loss figures and unit-economics detail are drawn from listing documents and reported summaries, not independently audited by the author; readers should consult the original HKEX prospectuses for exact financials. - We did not assess mainland A-share listings or U.S. listings of Chinese robotics and chip firms, which follow different rules and investor bases, and which are out of scope here. ## What readers can do now - Read the original HKEX "final price and allocation" announcements (on hkexnews.hk) before trusting any secondary "raise amount" — they contain the audited gross and net figures and exact share counts. - Separate "gross proceeds" from "net proceeds": the gap from underwriting and listing fees is routinely 5–10% and changes the real capital a company receives. - Track post-listing free float and the six-month lock-up expiry for cornerstone investors; a small float plus a looming lock-up release is a more useful risk signal than the opening-day move. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-capital-robot-ipo-wave Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.