Montage's Strong IPO Highlights Chinese Investment Rush into AI and Data Center Ecosystems

Montage Technology, a server and data center connectivity specialist, this week made its initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Following the listing, the company's shares climbed 64% on the first day of trading after a $902 million offering, reports Bloomberg. Montage is not alone in its successful IPO, which underscores continued investor enthusiasm for Chinese semiconductor companies tied to artificial intelligence and data center growth.

A 64% Jump in One Day

The company priced its shares at HK$106.89 ($13.67)— the upper end of the proposed range — and sold 65.9 million shares in the offering. The stock finished its debut session at HK$175, and the company raised well over $902 million initially planned, which represents one of the strongest first-day performances among Hong Kong listings in the last five years, according to Bloomberg. The pricing in Hong Kong was a discount relative to Montage's Shanghai-listed shares, which had closed at 170.90 yuan ($15.61) on the day before the offering.

Montage's Shanghai-listed shares have more than doubled over the past year, offering the company an approximate valuation of $29 billion. The firm recently reported projected net income of 2.15 billion yuan ($311.105 million) to 2.35 billion yuan ($340.045 million) for 2025, according to Bloomberg. Analysts surveyed by the news agency expect earnings to reach about 3.3 billion yuan ($477.51 million) in 2026, as demand associated with AI and data center expansion continues to grow.

Montage's Product Portfolio and Market Position

Montage produces a variety of products for server and data center connectivity, including DDR5 memory PMICs and SPDs, PCIe retimers, CXL controllers, clock chips, and many others. The crown jewel in Montage's lineup is its Jintide platform, which sits next to an Intel Xeon CPU and adds Chinese encryption and hardware root of trust (HRoT) support, as well as a proprietary I/O hub to the leading x86 processor.

Because Montage is particularly strong in China, Frost & Sullivan believes that the Shanghai-based company held more than one-third of global revenue share in the memory interconnect chip segment in 2024. Keeping in mind China's attempt to become self-sufficient in terms of semiconductor supply, investing in China-based Montage is a safe bet.

A Broader Picture

Montage is not the only high-tech company from China that seeks capital, gets more than it had planned, and sees its stock rising significantly in just a few days or months, as demand for Chinese AI, data center, and microelectronics-related stocks is high among investors in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Since roughly late-2024 through early-2026, there has been a noticeable wave of IPO activity among Chinese AI, semiconductor, and AI-adjacent tech companies in Hong Kong.

Notable Chinese Tech IPOs

The most notable companies include:

• Biren Technology (+76% gain on debut) - produces AI accelerators
• GigaDevice Semiconductor (rose 93% since January) - analog products, controllers, embedded memory, and microcontrollers
• Iluvatar CoreX (with modest performance) - AI accelerators
• Minimax Group (rose 196% since January) - generative AI models and applications
• OmniVision Integrated Circuits Group (which raised $600 million on the day of listing) - CMOS image sensors
• Zhipu AI (+13.3% on first day, market capitalization of around $7 billion) - generative AI models and applications

Biren and Iluvatar CoreX produce AI accelerators, and their business is expected to prosper now that the Chinese government does not want to allow AI GPUs from AMD and Nvidia into the country. Still, both companies face strong competition from local vendors like Cambricon (first listed in 2020) and Huawei, which are bigger financially and have stronger software stacks.

Minimax is one of China's rapidly growing startups focused on generative AI models and applications, just like Zhipu AI. Since the U.S. government no longer allows the export of such AI models and AI model weights to China, both companies now lack major competitors on a rapidly growing market. Investor confidence in Biren, Iluvatar, Minimax, and Zhipu AI has been supported by domestic policy backing aimed at strengthening China's artificial intelligence ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the success of GigaDevice and OmniVision stems from different sentiments.

A Part of the AI Boom Without Developing AI

GigaDevice produces analog products, controllers, embedded memory, and microcontrollers that are used across the entire microelectronics supply chain, including among devices that use AI. The company had established revenue, profitability, and predictable demand from NOR flash and MCU products prior to IPO, which made its earnings easier to model compared to loss-making AI models or accelerator companies.

Furthermore, given China's plan to achieve self-sufficiency in chip production, it has also benefited from domestic substitution trends and lower geopolitical risk, which are set to continue.

OmniVision is a semiconductor company primarily focused on designing CMOS image sensors and related imaging solutions used in automotive cameras, industrial equipment, smartphones, security systems, and increasingly AI-enabled vision applications. As a result, investor interest around OmniVision's IPO was driven less by AI hype itself and more by its positioning as a major supplier to the rapidly expanding machine-vision ecosystem.

This ecosystem is about to explode due to autonomous driving, smart surveillance, robotics, and edge AI devices that rely on visual data processing. Again, unlike AI startups, OmniVision offers established revenue streams, diversified end markets, and proven manufacturing relationships, which reduces AI-associated risks while remaining in the broad AI domain, which certainly made it attractive to investors.

The Future of Chinese AI

Montage Technology's strong IPO performance reflects continued investor enthusiasm for Chinese semiconductor companies linked to AI and data center growth. Meanwhile, as demand for infrastructure supporting AI continues to expand, there are more companies — representing both the AI sector and adjacent sectors like Montage — to conduct successful IPOs in China and raise hundreds of billions of dollars.

The wave of successful IPOs from Chinese semiconductor and AI companies represents more than just market enthusiasm — it signals Beijing's accelerating push for technological self-sufficiency. With U.S. export controls limiting access to advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, Chinese firms are racing to develop domestic alternatives across the entire technology stack.

This investment rush creates a unique dynamic in the global semiconductor market. While Western companies face regulatory headwinds in China, domestic Chinese firms benefit from both government support and investor optimism about their growth potential in a protected market. The result is a bifurcated semiconductor landscape where Chinese companies can raise capital more easily for AI and data center infrastructure projects, while their Western counterparts navigate export restrictions and geopolitical tensions.

For investors, this trend presents both opportunities and risks. The strong IPO performances suggest that Chinese AI and semiconductor companies can command premium valuations, particularly those with established revenue streams like Montage and OmniVision. However, the sector remains vulnerable to policy shifts, both from Beijing and Washington, as well as the inherent risks of investing in emerging technologies and unproven business models.

As the AI arms race intensifies, the success of these Chinese IPOs may well determine which companies will supply the critical infrastructure for the next generation of artificial intelligence applications — whether in data centers, autonomous vehicles, or smart cities. The hundreds of billions being raised today could shape the competitive landscape of global technology for decades to come.