Kunlun Chip Pursues Dual-Listing on Shanghai STAR and Hong Kong Exchanges to Accelerate Domestic AI Compute Independence

Dual-Track Listing Strategy: Kunlun Chip’s IPO Reflects the Deeper Logic of China’s Autonomous AI Computing Power

When Kunlun Chip Technology completed its listing tutoring filing with the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau for a STAR Market IPO, the market did not interpret the move merely as a routine capital-market maneuver by a chipmaker. More notably, its Hong Kong IPO process is advancing in parallel—a dual-track “A+H” listing strategy closely mirroring those adopted by leading AI chip firms such as Zhipu AI and Biren Technology. Against a macro backdrop marked by broad-based declines across China’s three major equity indices—particularly the STAR Market 50 Index falling 1.52% intraday and the Hang Seng Tech Index also under downward pressure—Kunlun Chip’s disciplined capital-market rhythm stands out as a signal of strategic resolve. Underpinning this approach lies a precise calibration of structural differences across capital markets: leveraging Hong Kong’s liquidity to support short-term valuation realization; harnessing STAR Market policy incentives to reinforce its identity as a “hard-tech” enterprise; and elevating the “domestic substitution” narrative from a commercial proposition to a national-strategic validation of technological trustworthiness and security.

Hong Kong Liquidity + A-Share Policy Incentives: A Rational Economic Choice

Current capital-market conditions exhibit pronounced bifurcation. On the A-share side, although the STAR Market 50 Index represents core hard-tech assets, it has recently underperformed—opening down 1.52%, reflecting investor caution regarding near-term profitability. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong market faces headwinds too: industry leaders such as SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor posted single-day losses exceeding 4%, pushing the Hang Seng Tech Index down 1% intraday. Against this backdrop, Kunlun Chip’s steadfast pursuit of dual-track listing is no haphazard expansion—it is an optimal solution grounded in pragmatic constraints. Hong Kong’s market offers greater tolerance for pre-profitability tech firms; its valuation framework emphasizes technological moats and commercialization potential—ideal for Kunlun Chip, which has already scaled deployment of its large-model training chips across dozens of clients, including Baidu’s ERNIE Bot, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), and Zuoyebang. This enables rapid access to liquidity and international institutional attention. Concurrently, STAR Market tutoring filing anchors Kunlun Chip firmly within the state-designated “hard-tech” priority lane—granting tangible advantages such as enhanced R&D expense tax deductions, expedited refinancing channels, and matching industrial funds from local governments. Crucially, A-share listing will significantly strengthen its supply-chain influence: downstream server OEMs and cloud service providers assign markedly higher implicit trust to “STAR Market-listed” suppliers when making procurement decisions—an advantage that directly accelerates adoption of Kunlun Chip’s second-generation AI chips in intelligent computing centers.

Upgrading the Domestic Substitution Narrative: Forging a Trust Chain—from “Functional” to “Trustworthy”

Kunlun Chip’s distinctive value lies precisely in bridging the most formidable trust gap confronting domestic AI chipmakers. Unlike many startups still confined to tape-out verification, Kunlun Chip has achieved mass production and delivery of its second-generation chip (7nm process, peak compute of 256 TOPS@INT8) and now powers core inference workloads in Baidu’s in-house intelligent computing centers. This real-world, battle-tested deployment lifts its domestic-substitution narrative beyond rhetoric. Capital markets are now tracking more incisive metrics—not just whether a chip has been taped out, but rather: the capability to close the technology iteration loop, and the depth and breadth of customer integration. The former hinges on whether Kunlun Chip’s third-generation chip—optimized specifically for large-model training—will enter mass production as scheduled in 2025; the latter depends on whether its client base expands beyond internet giants into mission-critical sectors such as finance, government services, and energy. Especially amid deepening U.S.-China technological decoupling, if Kunlun Chip can establish autonomous, controllable nodes across key domains—including EDA toolchain compatibility (deep collaboration already underway with Empyrean and BILUO Electronics) and advanced packaging (joint Chiplet lab established with JCET)—its valuation logic will shift decisively from “substitution value” to “ecosystem leadership value.”

Valuation Anchoring Effect: Catalyzing Industry-Wide Attention Across the AI Chip Value Chain

As one of the very few domestic AI accelerator chip companies to have completed full-cycle validation—from design and tape-out through mass production to commercial deployment—Kunlun Chip’s listing process inherently serves as an industry-wide valuation anchor. Its IPO pricing and subsequent market capitalization will become critical reference points for investors assessing peers such as Cambricon, TianShu Intelligence, and Enflame Technologies. This anchoring effect ripples upstream: IP core vendors (e.g., VeriSilicon) and EDA tool providers (e.g., GLP Microelectronics, BILUO Electronics) gain significantly improved order visibility; midstream advanced packaging and testing facilities (e.g., JCET, Tongfu Microelectronics) secure long-term capacity-planning clarity thanks to the clear adoption path for Chiplet architecture; even downstream AI server manufacturers (e.g., Inspur Information, Sugon) are progressively raising the weight assigned to “Kunlun Chip architecture compatibility” requirements in tender documents. One unmistakable signal emerges: capital-market focus on the AI chip sector has pivoted decisively from conceptual hype toward rigorous scrutiny of real-world compute-delivery capability—a shift compelling the entire value chain to abandon short-term, quick-win models in favor of coordinated, three-year technical breakthroughs.

Validating Sustainable Profitability: A Paradigm Shift in Hard-Tech Investment Logic

The most profound implication of Kunlun Chip’s dual-track listing lies in its role as a catalyst for reshaping capital-market perceptions of hard-tech profitability. Historically, markets applied internet-style valuation models to chip firms—tolerating prolonged losses in exchange for user scale. Kunlun Chip’s trajectory demonstrates that sustainable profitability for AI chips is rooted in deep scenario coupling and revolutionary cost-efficiency gains. Joint optimization with high-frequency Baidu applications—such as Search and Wenku (Baidu Library)—has reduced per-unit compute cost by over 40% versus GPU-based solutions. On the edge, its low-power first-generation chip is already embedded in intelligent cockpit systems and industrial visual inspection equipment, establishing a robust second growth vector. Consequently, profitability does not hinge solely on chip unit sales, but unfolds via a three-dimensional monetization model: “chip + software stack + scenario-specific solutions.” When this model withstands rigorous audit and sustained market scrutiny, it will fundamentally dismantle investors’ entrenched perception of domestic chips as bottomless “R&D black holes,” instead establishing a replicable commercial blueprint for the entire hard-tech ecosystem: technological autonomy must ultimately prove commercially viable; domestic substitution must ultimately deliver tangible value creation.