400% gains for AI stocks help drive Hong Kong IPOs to 5-year high
Deal backlogs and stricter quality controls are pushing some tech firms back to mainland Chinese listings
A raft of Chinese AI and tech companies have boosted Hong Kong initial public offerings to a five-year high.
Primary and secondary offerings in Hong Kong raised some US$14bn in the first quarter of 2026, the best first quarter for equity sales since 2021, according to data from Dealogic and LSEG. That is ahead of rivals including the Nasdaq, New York and Bombay stock exchanges.
The two best-performing stocks listed this year, Zhipu and MiniMax, have soared more than 400 per cent this year, showing how the hunt for exposure to China’s fast-growing AI sector is driving the market.
“If you look back at 2025 when the DeepSeek moment happened, investors were buying [Chinese] large cap tech stocks in the indices,” said Jason Lui, head of Apac equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas.
“But this year you have pure-play AI lab and AI hardware stocks, for investors who wish to express a strong view on China’s artificial intelligence sector.”
The dominance of technology hardware and software companies in recent Hong Kong IPO statistics underscores the territory’s role as an offshore fundraising hub for Chinese companies looking to expand abroad and invest in research and development.
The IPO pipeline for this year includes more than 400 companies already in the process, with others such as agricultural chemicals company Syngenta also looking to list in the city.
However, two capital markets advisers said some tech companies are looking at switching their listing destination back to Shanghai or Shenzhen, signalling a potential reopening of the mainland markets as rivals to Hong Kong.
While listing in the mainland remains difficult, because of tough requirements by the regulators, companies with strategic intellectual property in the technology sector can be fast-tracked.
An investment manager at a Beijing-based venture capital firm said some of its portfolio companies — mainly in AI, quantum computing and neurotechnology — are considering listing on Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR Market.
Stricter quality control requirements for Hong Kong IPOs have lengthened the listing and registration process compared with last year, the manager said.
In recent weeks, regulators have moved to stop “low-quality” companies from listing in Hong Kong as it seeks to slow but not halt the IPO boom.
China’s top securities watchdog, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), recently blocked listings by some companies with opaque offshore structures that it deems to have “relatively low ownership transparency and higher compliance risks.”
Along with the CSRC, the Hong Kong exchange has also raised concerns about the quality of the information submitted by potential share issuers. It has threatened to “name and shame” the lawyers and accountants behind poor or inaccurate IPO prospectus.