China AI supplier Zhongji Innolight slips in Hong Kong debut after $6.8 billion IPO
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- Zhongji Innolight shares fell 5% on Thursday in their Hong Kong Stock Exchange trading debut after the optical transceiver maker priced its IPO at HK$980 per share — below the maximum indicated price of HK$1,010.
- Zhongji Innolight raised HK$53.4 billion ($6.8 billion), making the listing Asia's second-largest of 2025, trailing only Chinese memory-chip maker CXMT's $8.6 billion Shanghai listing.
- Zhongji Innolight is already listed in Shenzhen and supplied components for AI data centers, cloud computing and high-speed networking, with its prospectus citing consultancy CIC data showing it held 21.2% of the global optical interconnect market by revenue in 2025 — the world's largest share.
- The Hong Kong offering drew orders roughly 16.8 times the shares available to retail investors and 9.7 times for the international tranche, signaling robust book-building demand even as the stock slid on debut.
- Zhongji Innolight plans to deploy the IPO proceeds toward R&D, expanding overseas production capacity, strengthening its supply chain and pursuing potential acquisitions.
Why it matters: Zhongji Innolight commands a 21.2% global share of optical interconnect solutions — critical hardware for AI data centers — yet its shares fell 5% on debut despite being 16.8x oversubscribed by retail investors, suggesting institutional investors viewed even the discounted HK$980 price as full after a year of strong AI-related gains.
