Shanghai-based Infinigence AI has filed confidentially for a Hong Kong IPO seeking several hundred million US dollars, against a reported pre-offering valuation of 14.3 billion yuan, Bloomberg reported on 1 October. The filing was made in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter.
Key points
- Infinigence is seeking several hundred million US dollars through a planned Hong Kong IPO.
- The company has raised 4.3 billion yuan since its founding in 2023 and is backed by Tencent, Baidu and Z.AI.
- A listing could take place as early as the first half of 2027, although its timing and size might change.
Infinigence’s 14.3 billion yuan valuation
One person familiar with the matter put Infinigence’s valuation ahead of the proposed offering at 14.3 billion yuan. The planned IPO would give the company another route to funding after private rounds that have brought in 4.3 billion yuan ($641 million) since it was founded in 2023.
Tencent Holdings, Baidu and AI laboratory Z.AI are among its backers. Their involvement places Infinigence alongside companies that develop AI models and services as a supplier of the computing capacity those businesses use. Its proposed sale of shares would be a separate financing step from the private funding it has already raised.
Infinigence also raised more than 700 million yuan ($104 million) in follow-on funding, Tech in Asia reported. Qiming Venture Partners said it participated in that round and described the company as an AI infrastructure provider. The reported IPO fundraising target remains several hundred million US dollars.
Third-party data centres and domestic chips
Infinigence provides AI cloud infrastructure by managing computing capacity at third-party data centres rather than owning the facilities. It operates in a group of providers known as neoclouds, which supply capacity for AI model training and inference to technology companies and smaller developers.
That operating model makes access to computing capacity central to what Infinigence sells. Its role is to manage capacity across facilities run by other parties, while the customers described in the reporting use that capacity to train models or run them. The company’s proposed listing concerns that infrastructure business.
Its hardware includes Huawei’s Ascend chips and products from Moore Threads. Infinigence uses domestic chips because Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips cannot be sold in China under US trade restrictions. The restrictions affect the chips available to the company as it supplies computing resources to AI developers.
Huawei said demand for its AI chips outstrips supply, according to Tech in Asia. Its Ascend products are among the chips Infinigence uses, alongside Moore Threads hardware, in a market where access to Nvidia’s most advanced products is restricted.
Hong Kong listing targeted for 2027
The Hong Kong proposal follows a confidential filing rather than a completed share sale. People familiar with the plans said the IPO’s size and timetable were still being finalised and could change. The several-hundred-million-dollar figure is therefore a fundraising target, rather than proceeds the company has received.
Hong Kong has a specialist listing regime covering advanced technology issuers. Bloomberg reported that an Infinigence spokesperson declined to comment on the IPO plans. The person who gave the valuation was not identified because the plans were private.
Infinigence could list in Hong Kong as early as the first half of 2027, although the timing and size of the offering might change.
