Top technology firms in the United States and China are rushing to go public, with analysts warning that these companies will lock up funding in artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, robotics, and aerospace. The combined valuation of the five largest U.S. and Chinese companies set to list this year — including SpaceX, Anthropic, and Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) — is estimated to exceed 5,500 trillion won, widening the gap between these firms and the rest of the field.
According to the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's space company SpaceX is scheduled to list on the Nasdaq on the 12th of this month. Anthropic, the developer of the generative AI model Claude, filed a confidential S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday local time, edging out OpenAI by a narrow margin. The market expects the listing to take place as early as this fall, with a valuation projected to exceed $1 trillion (about 1,500 trillion won).
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT and the originator of the generative AI boom, is also expected to file its IPO application within the first half of the year. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are supporting OpenAI's listing preparations and that the process could begin within weeks.
These companies, which have raised massive amounts of capital in the private market, are facing increased pressure to return investments as SpaceX moves up its listing. "The oxygen in the room is limited," said Patrick Healy of advisory firm Issuer Network. "SpaceX will absorb an enormous amount of capital, and the second company to list could be in a more favorable position than the third."
Chinese technology companies that once aimed for the U.S. stock market are now sweeping up not only capital from foreign investors via Hong Kong but also mainland funds through the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. According to KPMG, in the first quarter of this year, the STAR Market (a board dedicated to science and technology) accounted for the largest share — 8.922 billion yuan (about 2.0012 trillion won) — of the total 25.879 billion yuan (about 5.8142 trillion won) raised through A-share IPOs in mainland China, where domestic investors are the primary participants. Over the same period, IPOs on the Hong Kong stock exchange totaled 40, nearly tripling from 15 in the same period last year, with six of them being specialty technology companies, surpassing the annual figure of five from last year.
The activity of semiconductor companies is particularly notable. CXMT, China's largest DRAM maker, recently passed the listing review for the STAR Market on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The target valuation announced by the company late last year was around 300 billion yuan (about 67 trillion won), but optimists in the market suggest a market capitalization of 2 trillion yuan (about 444 trillion won) is possible given strong first-quarter results this year. Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), China's leading NAND flash company, is also undergoing the STAR Market listing process. The market estimates YMTC's valuation at $30 billion to $50 billion.
Unitree, China's leading humanoid robot company, passed the review of the STAR Market listing committee at the Shanghai Stock Exchange the previous day and is expected to list as early as next month. MiniMax and Zhipu AI, whose shares surged up to 700% and 1,600% respectively above their offering prices following Hong Kong listings in January on the back of the AI agent boom, are also pursuing dual listings on the mainland market to raise additional capital.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) said, "China's IPO market is gaining momentum as authorities ease equity regulations to support the country's national technology innovation strategy."
