Booming stock market and more favorable domestic regulations drive a wave of Chinese tech firms to list at home, instead of US
Li Yuan / Wall Street Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2015 report marks the start of an arc the corpus keeps revisiting: the venue where Chinese tech companies go public swings with market conditions and regulation, not just geopolitics. A decade later, the pendulum was still moving — after more than 20 Chinese companies still floated on Nasdaq or NYSE in 2020 despite US-China tensions, the domestic window then slammed shut on valuations, with [[a:979314|startups listing on China's STAR Market below their private-round prices during its ~30% 2022 drawdown]].
What makes the current moment notable is that both channels are now open at once: Hong Kong rules permitting lossmaking tech floats drew 12 mainland tech listing applications in 2025, the most since 2023, while [[a:1171708|mainland listings raised $3.1B YTD by mid-2026, up more than 5x year-over-year, led by AI and chip companies]] — suggesting the 2015 dynamic of favorable domestic regulation reasserting itself around strategic sectors.
First-order effects
- Chinese tech firms weighing an IPO can now choose between three live venues — mainland boards like STAR Market, Hong Kong's relaxed rules for lossmaking companies, and US exchanges — instead of defaulting to Nasdaq or NYSE.
- US exchanges lose listing fees and index inclusion for a growing share of Chinese tech issuance whenever domestic valuations and regulatory treatment look better.
Second-order effects
- When the domestic window closes — as in 2022's below-private-round listings — Hong Kong becomes the pressure-release valve, capturing applications from companies unwilling to wait out a STAR Market slump.
- US investors keep buying exposure anyway: even as lawmakers push tighter capital curbs, money flowed into ETFs tracking China's tech sector, meaning the venue shift changes where trades clear but not necessarily who holds the risk.
Third-order effects
- If the AI-and-chip-led onshore surge continues, China's most strategically favored tech companies may list primarily where regulators can shape their shareholder base, leaving US markets with the residual, politically contested flow.
- Listing venue becomes cyclical rather than one-directional: each reopening of the domestic or Hong Kong window resets the calculus, so no single exchange retains a durable lock on Chinese tech IPOs.
The trend: Chinese tech IPO venue choice is oscillating between US, Hong Kong, and mainland exchanges as regulation, valuation cycles, and strategic sectors like AI and chips reshape where companies float.