The China AI IPO boom has already surpassed last year’s total fundraising, with Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges raising more than $54 billion combined so far in 2026, according to financial data platform LSEG.
That figure exceeds the more than $46 billion raised across the two markets for the whole of last year, LSEG said. Combined proceeds from Hong Kong and Shanghai account for roughly 21% of global IPO activity, placing them second only to the Nasdaq’s roughly 55% global share.
Shein, the China-founded fast fashion giant, is the latest company to capitalise on the wave. Its shares are due to debut in Hong Kong in an initial public offering raising $1.7 billion, one of the city’s largest new share sales this year. The company’s valuation stands at around $27 billion, a fraction of its peak valuation, partly due to US and EU moves to restrict de minimis tax exemptions on small imported packages.
Chipmakers and robotics firms power the China AI IPO boom
Investor appetite for artificial intelligence and advanced technology is driving the surge. Memory chipmaker CXMT raised more than $8.6 billion in Shanghai, the second-largest IPO for the city’s Nasdaq-style STAR market. Its shares jumped 466% on the first day of trading.
CXMT’s revenue surged more than 700% year-on-year to 50.8 billion yuan (about $7.5 billion) in the first three months of 2026, on a spike in demand for chips used in AI applications. Perris Lee, head of APAC equity capital markets for ION Analytics, said the listing “placed China in a strategically significant position in tech manufacturing related to AI” and described it as “a testament to China’s tech self-sufficiency ambitions.”
Humanoid robot maker Unitree also listed in Shanghai, with shares rising 460% on debut. “The current IPO boom is powered by investor appetite for AI and robotics,” said Ruiying Zhao, a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Other listings feeding the trend include Apple supplier Luxshare Precision Industry and data centre optics maker Zhongji Innolight, both among this year’s largest Hong Kong deals. Robotics firms AGIBOT and Deep Robotics are also looking at Hong Kong or Shanghai listings.
Bubble fears grow as post-listing gains evaporate
The rally has not held for every company. Unitree’s share price had fallen more than 40% as of Friday from its peak on debut day. More telling still, Reuters reported that Unitree’s adjusted net profit fell 53% to 40 million yuan ($5.95 million) in the first three months of 2026, fuelling fears that valuations have run ahead of underlying performance.
Zhao at S&P framed it bluntly: “The critical question remains: is the AI sentiment enough?” She said investors would demand “sustainable revenue, visible profit margins, and realistic valuations” for any durable market cycle.
The global AI frenzy has also squeezed appetite for companies outside the technology sector. “The AI investment cycle is absorbing much of the risk appetite that would have otherwise flowed to a company like Shein,” said Jacob Cooke, chief executive of WPIC Marketing + Technologies.
Shein had explored the possibility of listings in the US and London before choosing Hong Kong. Stricter regulatory scrutiny in both the US and China of large Chinese companies listing on American exchanges, particularly in advanced technology sectors, has pushed many firms back towards domestic or Hong Kong venues. Listing overseas also typically takes longer than a domestic IPO, according to Howie Farn, a capital markets partner at law firm Freshfields.
On the Nasdaq, a $75 billion IPO by SpaceX in June made the US exchange the world’s largest IPO market this year by total proceeds.
Shein’s Hong Kong debut on Tuesday will be an early test of whether non-AI companies can still command strong demand in a market increasingly shaped by the China AI IPO boom.
