HKEX chief executive Bonnie Chan, pictured at the exchange's 2025
HKEX chief executive Bonnie Chan, pictured at the exchange's 2025 full-year results presentation in February 2026. She says more than 100 companies have listed in Hong Kong this year, raising over $40 billion. Peter PARKS / AFP via Getty Images

The story of Hong Kong's 2026 listing boom has been told largely through artificial intelligence. The exchange's own chief executive is now pushing back on that framing.

Bonnie Chan told CNBC that Hong Kong's IPO pipeline is supported by companies well beyond the fashionable technology sector, pointing to biotechnology, mining and consumer businesses. More than 100 companies have listed so far this year, she said, with proceeds exceeding $40 billion — already past the $37 billion raised across the whole of 2025.

There remained, she added, a substantial number of high-quality companies in the pipeline attempting to complete listings before year-end.

What is actually in the queue

The candidates now moving through the process make her point better than the aggregate figures do.

Junxin, a waste management specialist, has received regulatory approval for its Hong Kong listing as it seeks growth beyond Changsha, the central Chinese city where it holds an effective monopoly in waste management. The company is looking to export a business model built on municipal refuse — a proposition with no plausible AI framing.

Three companies passed listing hearings in the week to 16 August: Shuangdeng Group, Jiaxin International and AUX, the last being one of the world's five largest air conditioning suppliers. Eight companies submitted applications in the same week.

Biotechnology has been the clearest evidence of breadth. Two Chapter 18A pre-revenue biotech companies, AB&B Bio-Tech and Innogen, listed in mid-August and rose 157.98% and 206.48% respectively on their first trading days. Hong Kong hosted 14 pre-revenue biotech listings in 2025, up from four in 2024.

Why breadth matters more than volume

A fundraising record built on one sector is a cyclical event. One spread across biotech, industrials, consumer and mining is closer to a functioning market.

The distinction is not academic for HKEX. The exchange reported first-half revenue up 19% and attributable profit up 24%, with an interim dividend lifted 24% — earnings directly leveraged to listing and trading activity. Analysts at CGS International, maintaining an Add rating, named escalating regulatory risk affecting the IPO market as a principal downside risk to that thesis. Concentration in a single hot sector is a version of the same exposure: if AI listings cool, a narrow market cools with them.

The first half was, in fact, heavily concentrated. KPMG recorded 24 A+H listings and 13 specialist technology IPOs, which together accounted for more than 70% of funds raised. Chan's argument is that the composition is now changing, and the hearing and application queue supports it.

The comparison Hong Kong is still losing

Breadth does not resolve the ranking question. Across the first half, HKEX placed second globally behind Nasdaq, which raised US$113.1 billion across 45 listings on the strength of SpaceX and a series of AI flotations.

That gap illustrates the trade-off. Nasdaq's total came from a small number of very large technology and space listings; Hong Kong's came from a far greater number of mid-sized deals across more sectors. Fewer than half as many companies raised nearly three times the money in New York.

Which is the better position depends on what happens to AI valuations. The companies driving Nasdaq's lead are still scaling — OpenAI's annualised revenue has roughly doubled to top $40 billion — and more are heading to public markets, with Anthropic having filed for an IPO without discussing a valuation. A diversified book of listings is worth less in a boom and considerably more in a correction.

What to watch

The year-end scramble Chan described is the immediate variable. Companies attempting to complete listings before December will test whether the current pace reflects demand or a queue clearing.

The second is HKEX's listing framework review. The exchange consulted in March on changes to weighted voting rights requirements and a streamlined path for overseas-listed issuers seeking secondary listings; the consultation closed in May and conclusions are pending. Those rules will shape what the 2027 pipeline looks like.

The third is whether the post-listing performance holds. Debut gains of 150% and 200% in biotech indicate strong subscription demand, but they also indicate pricing that leaves substantial value on the table — and sustained first-day pops of that size tend to attract regulatory attention rather than praise.