Chip designer GigaDevice surges 45% in Hong Kong debut amid China’s self-reliance drive

SCMP | Jan. 12, 2026, 9 p.m. | Original

Zhu Yiming, right, chairman of GigaDevice Semiconductor, and Hu Hong, deputy general manager, at the firm’s trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Photo: Handout

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Mainland chip designer GigaDevice Semiconductor jumped more than 45 per cent on its first trading day in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as the Beijing-based firm’s debut catered to investor appetite for tech companies amid China’s push for self-reliance .

The firm’s shares started trading at HK$235, versus the offer price of HK$162, before ending the morning session up 40 per cent at HK$226.80. Its shares closed between HK$224.20 and HK$226.80 on the grey market on Monday evening, helping some investors cash in gains of about 40 per cent before the official debut, data from major brokerages showed. Its Shanghai-listed shares trimmed earlier gains to complete morning trading down 1.6 per cent at 257.56 yuan on Tuesday.

GigaDevice’s listing raised HK$4.68 billion (US$600 million) as the company issued 28.9 million shares. Retail investors subscribed for 542 times the number of shares allocated to them, worth HK$468 million in the offering, after borrowing HK$193.7 billion in margin financing from brokers. The institutional tranche saw an oversubscription rate of around 18 times.

Chinese chip companies have drawn market attention since Beijing vowed to find domestic alternatives to advanced US products amid trade tensions and the intensifying race in artificial intelligence. In December, graphic processing unit (GPU) start-ups Moore Threads Technology and MetaX Integrated Circuits surged more than 400 per cent and nearly 700 per cent, respectively, in their Shanghai debuts.
Tech firms have logged generally weaker debuts in Hong Kong. GPU maker Shanghai Biren Technology jumped 76 per cent on its debut, while large language model developers Zhipu AI and MiniMax rose 13 per cent and 109 per cent, respectively.
GigaDevice’s trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 13, 2026.
GigaDevice’s trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 13, 2026.

China International Capital Corporation said in a report on Monday that the weight of hardcore tech firms in sectors like AI hardware in Hong Kong was still low, partly contributing to the weak performance this year. The Hang Seng Tech Index had inched up only 2 per cent so far this year, far behind the 12 per cent growth of the Star 50 Index of the Nasdaq-style Star Market in Shanghai.

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