Citi: Hong Kong's AI Chip IPOs Shrug Off the US Selloff

By Grace Kim

Citi says Hong Kong's AI chip IPOs are shrugging off the US selloff. That's the call from one of Wall Street's biggest banks, and it lands at a moment when investors could easily have gone the other way.

The context matters. American equities have been selling off, and semiconductor names sit close to the center of that pressure. AI-related stocks have swung hard on both sides of the Pacific this year, and the natural assumption would be that a US risk-off move drags down new chip listings everywhere.

Citi says that isn't happening in Hong Kong.

What is Citi actually saying?

The bank's view, as reported by Startup Fortune, is straightforward: AI chip IPOs in Hong Kong are holding their ground despite the weakness in US markets. The city's listings pipeline for semiconductor and AI-hardware companies is not buckling under the same pressure that has hit American chip stocks.

That's a divergence worth watching. When a global bank puts its name behind a claim like this, it usually means the trading desks and equity capital markets teams are seeing real order books, not just sentiment. In plain words: buyers are still showing up for Hong Kong's chip deals.

Why does the divergence matter?

Hong Kong has spent the past few years fighting to rebuild its reputation as a listing venue. A wave of AI and semiconductor candidates has become central to that effort. If those IPOs keep pricing and trading well while US markets wobble, the city gains a story it hasn't been able to tell with conviction since its last big listing boom.

The US selloff, by contrast, has hit the same thematic exposure that Hong Kong's pipeline is betting on. Citi's read suggests the two markets have decoupled, at least for now, on AI chip paper.

The takeaway: demand for AI chip listings in Hong Kong is running on its own fuel, not on Wall Street's mood.

What comes next?

The test is durability. One bank's call is a data point, not a trend, and the US selloff's next leg could still spill into Asian deal flow. But if Citi is right, Hong Kong's AI chip IPO window stays open even while the US one narrows, and issuers with chip assets may keep choosing the city over New York.