Shanghai-based lidar maker Hesai raised $190M in its Nasdaq IPO, becoming the first Chinese company to raise $100M+ in the US since October 2021, per Dealogic
Nicholas Megaw / Financial Times :
Context & Ripple Effects
Hesai's Nasdaq debut closes a long gap in cross-border listings: per Dealogic, it is the first Chinese company to raise $100M+ in the US since October 2021, arriving two years after its $300M Series D led by GL Ventures. The timing matters because the window it reopens is fragile — by November 2023 Hesai was already pushing back against US national security and privacy concerns with its stock down more than 55%.
That pressure shaped the next move: in September 2025 Hesai filed to raise roughly ~$497M in a Hong Kong offering explicitly amid US delisting risks, and its debut jumped 7.7% to a ~$4.5B market cap — making this 2023 IPO the first act of a dual-listing story rather than an endpoint.
First-order effects
- Hesai banks $190M to fund its stated expansion of United States operations, giving the Shanghai-based lidar maker — which claims roughly 33% of the global automotive lidar market — US-listed currency while Bosch, Lyft, and Baidu sit on its customer roster.
- The deal ends a 16-month drought of $100M+ Chinese raises on US exchanges, immediately reopening the question for other China-based issuers waiting on the sidelines.
Second-order effects
- Rival Alibaba-backed RoboSense chose the Hong Kong route instead, raising $126.14M in a January 2024 IPO whose stock slipped 2% on debut — suggesting issuers were already pricing the political risk differential between venues.
- US national-security scrutiny that landed on Hesai within months of listing raises the compliance bar every subsequent Chinese hardware issuer must clear before tapping American capital.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Chinese companies will treat US listings as one leg of a hedged structure — list in New York for valuation and dollar access, then layer on Hong Kong as insurance against delisting risk, exactly the sequence Hesai executed between 2023 and 2025.
The trend: Chinese tech issuers are splitting their equity stories across New York and Hong Kong, with each venue's geopolitical risk premium deciding where the next raise lands.