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Two of China’s leading developers of large artificial intelligence models have successfully passed listing hearings at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, marking a significant milestone on their path to going public.
One company secured approval on December 17, with the other passing the previous day. The listing process is backed by major investment banks, including UBS and China International Capital Corporation, respectively.
The first company confidentially filed its prospectus in June, making it the first Chinese large-model firm to pursue an IPO in Hong Kong. Due to the upcoming holiday season, it plans to list in January 2026, while the other company has not yet announced a timetable.
Neither company has issued detailed comments about their listings at this time.
Founded in 2019, one of these companies has its roots in academic research at Tsinghua University. It generates over CNY100 million (about USD14.2 million) annually from tools and models targeted at developers, with 2.7 million paying API users. Its CEO has indicated that the company expects revenue to double this year and aims to increase its API services’ share to 50%, reflecting a strategic focus on standardized offerings.
The other company was established in 2021. In October, it released and open-sourced a large language model that ranked among the top five globally overall and first among open-source models on the Artificial Analysis evaluation list. This achievement made it the first Chinese open-source model to reach such a high ranking alongside global peers like OpenAI and Google. Following a successful Series A funding round in March, which raised USD600 million from prominent investors including Alibaba, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, and Hillhouse Group, its valuation reached USD2.5 billion.
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