One of this year's most anticipated IPOs has been postponed in Hong Kong — Bloomberg

The initial public offering (IPO) of Kunlunxin, Baidu’s artificial intelligence chip development unit, may be postponed until next year, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. The reason is a delay in the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s (CSRC) approval of the deal.

Kunlunxin, a manufacturer of chips for data center servers, filed a confidential IPO application in Hong Kong in January with the aim of raising $2 billion. According to the agency’s sources, the company had expected to receive regulatory approval as early as this summer, but that did not happen. Kunlunxin is currently continuing to prepare for the offering, but it seems more likely that the deal will not take place until 2027—provided the regulator grants approval, sources told Bloomberg.

A Baidu spokesperson stated that the company denies the “market rumors.” “Since Kunlunxin is in the process of filing documents confidentially, we are not permitted by regulatory requirements to disclose any material non-public information, including the progress of the listing process,” the company spokesperson said. He noted that a public statement regarding the progress of the offering will be made in due course. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not respond to a request for comment.

Kunlunxin, established in part to provide computing power for Baidu’s online business, remains one of the few Chinese companies capable of developing powerful accelerators for AI systems. Along with Huawei Technologies and Cambricon Technologies, the company is likely to play a key role in Beijing’s efforts to build a domestic chip industry capable of competing with the United States, according to Bloomberg.

Kunlunxin’s IPO was considered one of the most high-profile upcoming offerings in Hong Kong this year, the agency notes. Hong Kong’s IPO market raised $51.6 billion this year, coming very close to the 2010 record. The main contribution came from companies in the AI industry’s supply chain—a sector at the heart of China’s technological ambitions.

However, activity in Hong Kong’s IPO market has slowed since September: investors around the world are increasingly demanding a return on the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in AI technologies.

In addition to its Hong Kong listing, Kunlunxin began preparing this year for a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Board, although the Hong Kong listing was originally scheduled to take place first.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor