Wall Street banks shut out of $5.8B Chinese AI deals in Hong Kong

Wall Street's largest investment banks were largely sidelined as Chinese artificial intelligence companies raised $5.8 billion through share sales in Hong Kong this week, underscoring the growing dominance of Chinese financial institutions in the city's capital markets.

Zhipu's $4 Billion Blockbuster

AI model maker Zhipu, listed as Knowledge Atlas Technology on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, priced a $4 billion share placement on Wednesday — the second-largest equity offering in Hong Kong this year — with China International Capital Corporation (CICC) acting as the sole placing agent. The company sold 19.78 million new shares at HK$1,588 each, a 13% discount to its previous close. Shares surged as much as 22% on Thursday morning following the announcement.bloomberg+3

The placement came just a day after Zhipu's six-month post-IPO lock-up expired for 25.68 million shares held by 11 cornerstone investors. Rather than triggering a sell-off, nearly 70% of those cornerstone investors committed to holding their stakes long-term, sending shares up more than 13% on the lock-up expiration day itself. Since its January 8 debut, Zhipu has rallied roughly 1,300% to 1,700%, depending on the trading session, making it one of the hottest stocks in Hong Kong.investing+3

MiniMax Rides AI Momentum

Fellow AI firm MiniMax also benefited from renewed enthusiasm. Its own cornerstone lock-up period expired this week, and shares gained ground after Reuters reported on Tuesday that the company is developing a 2.7 trillion-parameter large language model, internally codenamed M3 Pro. The model, which could become the world's largest open-source LLM by parameter count, may be released as early as the third quarter.reuters+1

Chinese Banks Dominate the Dealmaking

The absence of Wall Street from these transactions reflects a broader shift in Hong Kong's capital markets. Bloomberg reported Thursday that US banks were largely excluded from the week's AI fundraising spree. CICC, controlled by China's central government, has topped league tables for Hong Kong deals in the first half of 2026, having helped raise $3.23 billion from 36 deals. The trend highlights how geopolitical tensions and regulatory divergence between Washington and Beijing continue to reshape financial flows, with Chinese banks capturing the fees from what has become one of the world's most active equity markets this year.bloomberg+2