AI fever powers Hong Kong share sales through hurdles to 5-year high

Published Sun, Jun 28, 2026 · 06:16 PM

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong share sales surged to a five-year high in the first half of 2026 as investor enthusiasm around the artificial intelligence boom overpowered the drag of a sluggish equity market and regulatory headwinds.

Initial public offerings (IPOs), placements and block trades raised almost US$44 billion in Hong Kong, a 29 per cent jump from a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Chinese corporate giants including Contemporary Amperex Technology and Victory Giant Technology Huizhou led the charge with with multibillion-dollar offerings. Hong Kong accounted for the biggest portion of the US$122 billion raised in all of the Asia-Pacific region.

The deals were undeterred by the Hang Seng Index falling almost 12 per cent this year, Beijing rolling out measures that threaten to slow listings, and the war in the Middle East fanning inflation fears.

Hong Kong has emerged as the key hub for Chinese companies along the AI supply chain to raise funds as they race to build out capacity in competition with rivals across the Pacific. The mood remains firmly optimistic, with companies lining up for more deals.

“We expect activity across Greater China to accelerate in the second half,” said James Wang, head of Asia ex-Japan equity capital markets at Goldman Sachs Group. “The AI ecosystem continues to be one of the most important drivers of capital formation.”

Among those waiting in the wings are electronics manufacturer Luxshare Precision Industry, which is readying a roughly US$3 billion listing, optical transceiver maker Zhongji Innolight, and Baidu’s AI chip unit Kunlunxin.

Companies that recently listed are also wasting no time in tapping the market for more funds. Chinese battery maker CATL raised US$5 billion in a placement after its similar-sized Hong Kong listing last year, while AI model maker Zhipu, which went public in January, is already planning to raise several billion dollars as soon as next month, sources have said.

The frenzy helped sustain the momentum in the city’s recovery from a yearslong deal slump that had cast a shadow over its standing as a financial centre.

SEE ALSO

“Last year, the Hong Kong IPO market reopened in the second quarter after a couple of large and successful deals,” said Peihao Huang, head of Apac equity capital markets at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “Now the market has proven repeatedly it can absorb multibillion-dollar offerings.” 

AI drives activity

AI is powering deal activity across much of Apac too, particularly South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China. Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix filed for a jumbo US$29 billion US listing, putting it on track for one of the biggest share sales of all time.

The deals come after SpaceX held the largest IPO in history earlier this month and will serve as a further test of appetite for AI-related companies as US tech giants such as Alphabet lay out plans to raise tens of billions of dollars to fund their AI endeavours.

That’s against the backdrop of trader concerns that the AI rally might have got ahead of itself.

In Taiwan, there has been a surge in non-IPO fundraising as tech firms seek to keep up with soaring demand. Companies raised a record US$4.8 billion via convertible bonds this year, already outpacing every full-year haul on record, while billions more are expected to flow in through global depositary receipts.

In mainland China, memory chipmakers ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies are also planning multibillion-dollar offerings.

India goes quiet

The one market punching well below its weight in Asia is India, where share sales have raised just over US$14 billion this year, a 32 per cent drop from a year ago. The outbreak of war in the Middle East delivered a shock to an economy that is dependent on oil imports and the country’s equities have taken a drubbing as a result.

The NSE Nifty 50 Index is down 7.9 per cent this year, prompting issuers to downsize or postpone IPOs. One of them was Walmart-backed PhonePe, which pushed back a deal that could have raised as much as US$1.5 billion.

Still, India’s IPO market often picks up in the second half of the year and there are large deals on the horizon.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms this month filed for an IPO that could be the country’s largest ever, while National Stock Exchange of India, the operator of the world’s busiest derivatives market, also submitted paperwork for what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar listing.

“The challenge with India is not so much a question of supply,” said Saurabh Dinakar, head of Asia-Pacific global capital markets at Morgan Stanley. “It’s more a question of demand and valuations because obviously there’s been a pretty meaningful correction.”

India is also suffering from the absence of large AI names to capture investors’ attention.

“We are seeing a clear shift in existing liquidity: money flowing out of traditional secondary market stocks is migrating directly into AI supply chain equities and the primary IPO market for tech listings,” said Edison Zhou, head of ECM for China Merchants Bank International. BLOOMBERG