The rush towards artificial intelligence is breathing new life into the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Fundraising has literally exploded: some $1.4bn were raised in Q1, marking the best start to a year in five years, far ahead of Wall Street, Europe and Mumbai. 47 stocks were listed (37 on the main board alone), relegating the Nasdaq ($5.65bn) and the NYSE ($4.95bn) to second and third place globally. This also confirms Hong Kong's role as the preferred offshore venue for Chinese tech companies seeking capital.
The engine of this frenzy is undoubtedly the fabulous gains generated by the new stars of the market. The two standout performers of the year — Zhipu AI (aka Knowledge Atlas) and MiniMax — have seen their share prices literally skyrocket.
This is unprecedented for such young companies. These AI pure players are attracting money like magnets, in a "DeepSeek-style" atmosphere that favors pure AI actors over traditional tech giants. Investors now seem to be betting not on the old guard, but on these laboratories and hardware manufacturers dedicated to AI, expressing their conviction in the meteoric potential of the Chinese sector.
The phenomenon extends beyond startups: more established companies and even some large groups are testing the market. Syngenta (agrochemicals), for example, is already among the IPO filings, alongside hundreds of others. In all, over 530 companies have filed for a listing in Hong Kong to raise offshore funds — when a company seeks capital outside its home country — mostly Chinese firms. Naturally, many heavyweights and tech champions are included (three more raised the equivalent of €1.1bn in January, including the highly publicized high-performance chipmaker Biren Technology).
However, not everyone is staying on board. Faced with this IPO fever, Beijing has begun to crack down. Emissaries have asked certain "red-chip" players (companies registered offshore) to dismantle their foreign structures and return to mainland China before going public. In short, some IPOs risk being delayed by several months, or even abandoned, while holdings are restructured. New regulations now require red-chips to obtain Beijing's approval to raise funds abroad, or face being blocked. The official objective is to avoid opaque structures and protect investors (recalling the legacy of 2015 or 2021, when poorly managed global offerings turned into fiascos).
In Hong Kong itself, the focus is also on quality. The local exchange and securities authorities are insisting that IPO filings be "irreproachable." The message is clear: market participants will pay for a lack of transparent information. Regulators have even threatened to "publicly name and shame" lawyers, accountants and banks that submit incomplete or erroneous prospectuses (a measure popularized in 2014 and recently reactivated). Listing rejections are on the rise — with 15% of applications already rejected in March — a sign that the hunt for botched IPOs is on. This tightening is explained by the context: after a two-year boom ($37bn raised in 2025) and nearly 500 candidates at the starting line, authorities want to avoid overheating.
Paradoxically, Hong Kong has never been as popular as it is today, yet investor appetite has become as demanding as it is voracious. On one hand, AI is fueling unprecedented euphoria, boosting tech stocks and raising mountains of capital. On the other, regulators are tightening their net to avoid repeating past mistakes, increasing safeguards (refocusing red chips, transparency requirements, heavy fines for false statements in prospectuses).
This back-and-forth creates a unique atmosphere: the gleaming chrome of the new AI giants stands alongside the caution of the authorities. Hong Kong could well be writing a new chapter in its financial history, driven by the opposing forces of the tech rush and regulatory tightening. However, fundraising amounts could soon soar on Wall Street, with the highly anticipated SpaceX IPO before the summer, as well as speculation surrounding potential IPOs for OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, the developer of Claude, by the end of the year. To be continued...
