HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (July 30): Zhongji Innolight shares fell in their Hong Kong trading debut on Thursday after the Chinese maker of data-centre optical parts raised HK$53.4 billion (US$6.8 billion) in the city's biggest share sale this year.
The stock last traded at HK$902, down nearly 8% from its HK$980 offer price, after opening at HK$971. The benchmark Hang Seng Index was flat, while the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 1%. Its Shenzhen listed shares dropped 12%.
Zhongji topped the most actively traded stocks by turnover in mid-morning trade in Hong Kong, ahead of Tencent and Xiaomi.
The debut followed a pullback in Asian chip shares which rattled the AI trade, as investors questioned high valuations, the cost of building AI data centres and, outside of China, competition from Chinese technology suppliers.
"This primarily reflects the significant pullback in AI-related stocks in both Hong Kong and overseas markets since its bookbuilding started," said strategist Kenny Ng at China Everbright Securities International.
Zhongji's lead in high-speed optical communications and its AI infrastructure spending could support earnings growth over the medium-to-long term, but turbulence in AI trades means its shares could face high volatility in the near term, Ng said.
The share sale was Hong Kong's biggest since Alibaba Group raised US$12.9 billion in a secondary listing in 2019, LSEG data showed.
It was also Asia's second-largest share sale so far this year after Chinese memory chip maker CXMT raised US$8.6 billion and rose 466% in its Shanghai debut on Monday. CXMT fell 4% on Thursday morning.
Companies have raised US$33.8 billion from share sales in Hong Kong so far in 2026, a record year-to-date total, LSEG data showed. The figure is more than double the US$16.4 billion raised in the same period a year earlier.
"The rapid development of the digital economy and artificial intelligence is reshaping the global industrial landscape," Zhongji's chairman, executive director and president Liu Sheng said at the listing ceremony.
Zhongji makes optical transceivers used to move data through fibre-optic cables in data centres. It was the world's largest optical interconnect solutions provider by revenue last year with a 21.2% market share, it said, citing consultancy CIC.
The US accounted for 61.7% of first-quarter revenue.
In June, the US added Zhongji to a list of companies that it suspects has Chinese military ties. Zhongji said its addition lacked factual or legal basis, and that it had not resulted in material order cancellations, suspensions or delays.
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