Zhongji Innolight nears $7 billion Hong Kong IPO as AI boom fuels demand

Zhongji Innolight nears a $7 billion Hong Kong listing, the city's largest since Alibaba's 2019 IPO.

The company could launch bookbuilding next week and debut in the first week of August, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named because the information isn't public.

The Shenzhen-listed company's first-quarter profit jumped 274% to 6.32 billion yuan ($932 million) on revenue of 19.5 billion yuan, its draft prospectus shows. Revenue rose 192% from a year earlier. For all of 2025, profit climbed 116% to 11.58 billion yuan on revenue of 38.24 billion yuan.

At $7 billion, the offering would surpass Luxshare Precision's $3.1 billion share sale on July 6 to become Hong Kong's largest listing this year. Companies have raised $33.8 billion from new listings in Hong Kong so far in 2026, more than double the $16.4 billion in the same period last year, according to LSEG data.

Zhongji has been the world's largest optical interconnect solutions provider by revenue for five straight years since 2021, citing industry consultant CIC in its draft prospectus. The company makes optical modules used in AI data centers that help move large amounts of data quickly between computer servers.

The company plans to use proceeds for research and development, global production expansion, supply chain work, strategic acquisitions and general working capital, according to the filing. The deal size, pricing and timetable were not disclosed.

The U.S. accounted for 61.7% of Zhongji's revenue in the first quarter, up from 57.3% for all of 2025. The U.S. Department of Defense added the company to its Chinese military companies list on June 8. Zhongji said the list was not an economic sanctions list and did not restrict its business with U.S. customers. It said it had not seen any material customer order cancellations since the designation.

Goldman Sachs, CICC, Morgan Stanley, GF Securities, Haitong International, Citi, HSBC and China Galaxy International are overall coordinators for the listing.

The pricing will test whether global investor appetite for Chinese AI-linked companies can withstand geopolitical headwinds and a recent tech selloff that has pushed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index into bear market territory. First-day trading, expected in early August, will signal institutional demand for Hong Kong's largest listing in seven years.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.