China's market for new tech listings is roaring back to life — and the comeback is being led by exactly the companies Beijing most wants to nurture. Chinese technology firms have raised about $3.1 billion from onshore IPOs so far in 2026, more than five times the amount over the same period last year, putting the year on track to be the strongest since 2023, Investing.com reported, citing Reuters data.
The terms, quickly
An IPO (initial public offering) is a company's first sale of shares to the public. "Onshore" means listing on mainland China's own exchanges — chiefly Shanghai's STAR Market and Shenzhen's ChiNext, China's answers to the Nasdaq for high-growth technology — rather than in Hong Kong or New York. After a sharp slump (tech listings raised just $2.7 billion in 2024), the taps are reopening.
A state-steered comeback
This isn't a free-market frenzy so much as industrial policy with a share price. China's securities regulator has signaled support for listings in strategic "hard tech" fields, and the Shanghai exchange published new rules to make it easier for large-language-model (AI) companies to list on the STAR Market — a notable shift, since many are not yet profitable. Beijing decides which sectors get the green light, and right now that means semiconductors and AI.
The pipeline is deep: nearly 50 companies have filed to list in Shanghai and Shenzhen, aiming to raise at least 126.1 billion yuan (about $18.7 billion) combined.
The marquee names
The headliner is ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) — the state-backed maker of DRAM memory chips that Boursel has covered as the supplier Apple sought US permission to buy from — which is planning a 29.5 billion yuan Shanghai IPO, set to be the largest this year. Also in the queue: Zhipu AI, one of China's leading model developers, which raised HK$4.35 billion in Hong Kong in January and is targeting a 15 billion yuan STAR Market listing; and Baidu's chip unit Kunlunxin.
The frenzy — and the warning in it
Early debuts have drawn wild demand. New chip listings such as SJ Semiconductor and Semight Instruments reportedly jumped roughly 8 times and 28 times their offer prices on debut, per the Reuters data. Those are not signs of calm price discovery; they reflect China's retail-heavy markets and the scarcity value investors place on anything labeled "AI" or "chips." Eye-watering first-day pops are as much a caution as a cause for celebration.
Why it matters
The driver is the US-China tech war. Tightening US export controls on advanced chips have made domestic capacity a national priority, and onshore IPOs are one way Beijing funnels money — and patriotic investor enthusiasm — into the firms meant to reduce China's dependence on foreign technology. The contrast with Hong Kong (where Chinese tech firms have also been listing heavily, as we reported with Momenta) suggests Beijing increasingly wants this capital raised at home, under its own oversight.
For global investors, the rebound is a signal worth reading carefully: it shows real momentum behind China's chip-and-AI build-out, but in markets where the state sets the direction and retail traders set the prices. The capital is flowing; whether the profits follow the fundraising is the question these listings will answer over the next few years.
