Hong Kong: Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chip startup Shanghai Biren Technology has raised HK$5.58 billion or about US$716.85mil in its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), according to an exchange filing.
The semiconductor designer set the offer price at HK$19.60 apiece, the top end of the marketed range. It offered 284.8 million shares in the IPO.
Institutional investor demand for Biren’s IPO was nearly 26 times the shares on offer, while the retail tranche was oversubscribed about 2,348 times, the filing on Wednesday showed.
Shanghai-based Biren’s IPO follows successful offerings from industry peers Moore Threads and MetaX as China seeks to develop domestic alternatives to US semiconductors amid stringent export restrictions by Washington on advanced chips.
Founded in 2019, Biren’s co-founders include Zhang Wen, formerly the president of AI face-recognition company SenseTime , and Jiao Guofang, who previously worked at Qualcomm and Huawei.
The company initially drew attention in 2022 when it unveiled its first batch of products, including its BR100 chip. — Reuters
