Two Chinese AI Chip Designers Plan to Raise US$1.28 Billion in Hong Kong IPOs

Two Chinese AI Chip Designers Plan to Raise US$1.28 Billion in Hong Kong IPOs

Two Chinese AI chip designers plan to raise US$1.28 billion in initial public offerings in Hong Kong, joining a growing list of companies tapping the financial hub to shore up funds for expansion.

Shanghai-listed Montage Technology plans to raise up to 7.04 billion Hong Kong dollars, or US$901.9 million, in gross proceeds via its secondary listing with the maximum offer price at HK$106.89 a share, it said on Friday.

Montage, founded in 2004 in Shanghai, specializes in interconnect chips that are critical for data centers and cloud computing.

Axera Semiconductor, which makes visual AI inference chips for on-device computing and smart vehicles, is seeking to raise 2.96 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to US$379.2 million, by issuing 104.9 million shares at HK$28.20 a piece.

Montage is expected to list on the Hong Kong exchange on Feb.9 and Axera on Feb. 10.

Axera plans to use the majority of its proceeds to optimize its existing technology platform to improve its current products, while Montage will allocate most of the funds to research and development of interconnect chips.

Their listings follow blockbuster IPO debuts by industry peers Moore Threads and MetaX in Mainland China, as well as Biren Technology in Hong Kong.

Chinese chip companies have accelerated to go public in recent months as Beijing has made technological self-sufficiency a priority in its next five-year plan and investor appetite for AI-related companies remains strong.

Kunlunxin, the chip unit of Baidu, and Enflame Technology, one of China’s so-called “Four Little Dragons” in the graphics processing units sector, are also on track to list in Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively.

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Two Chinese AI Chip Designers Plan to Raise US$1.28 Billion in Hong Kong IPOs, source