China’s AI-fueled IPO boom hits $54 billion this year, with chipmakers and Shein’s $1.7 billion IPO

Chinese markets are booming with new public stock offerings, energized by the craze for artificial intelligence and other advanced technology and a growing preference to list shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In the latest big stock listing, shares in China-founded e-commerce and fast fashion giant Shein are due to debut Tuesday in Hong Kong in a blockbuster initial public offering raising $1.7 billion, in one of the city’s biggest new share sales this year.

In July, CXMT, China’s largest memory chipmaker, raised more than $8.6 billion in Shanghai in the second-largest IPO for its Nasdaq-style STAR market, mainland China’s second-largest IPO.

Its shares jumped 466% on the first day of trading.

Unitree, one of China’s leading humanoid robot makers, also made its listing debut in Shanghai in August .

Shares rose 460% on the first day of trading.

“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.

Trading in Shanghai’s stock market, for one, is heavily driven by retail investors.

AI driving Chinese IPO boom CXMT’s IPO in Shanghai “placed China in a strategically significant position in tech manufacturing related to AI,” said Perris Lee, head of APAC equity capital markets for ION Analytics.

“It’s also a testament to China’s tech self-sufficiency ambitions.” Founded in China in 2016, the company’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 computer chips needed for AI.

IPO proceeds in Hong Kong and Shanghai so far this year have already surpassed the funding raised last year, according to the financial data platform LSEG .

It says IPOs and secondary listing activities on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges raised a total of over $54 billion from so far in 2026, surpassing last year’s total of more than $46 billion.

Combined Hong Kong and Shanghai proceeds so far this year accounted for roughly 21% globally, ranking them only behind only the Nasdaq’s roughly 55% global share, LSEG said.

There, the mega $75 billion IPO by SpaceX in June made the U.S. exchange the world’s biggest IPO market this year.