[News] Baidu Chip Unit Kunlunxin Reportedly Launches STAR Market IPO Process; HK Listing Valuation Seen Near HK$100B

Baidu’s Kunlunxin, which confidentially filed for a main board listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2026, is reportedly advancing its capital market plans further. According to EE Times China, Kunlunxin launched its STAR Market listing guidance process on May 7, 2026, marking the rollout of its dual listing in China’s STAR Market and Hong Kong.

As noted by Jiemian, Baidu is Kunlunxin’s controlling shareholder, holding a 57.67% stake in the company. The report adds that, for Baidu, spinning off Kunlunxin through a public listing could help break away from the valuation constraints associated with its traditional internet business and unlock the long-term value of its chip operations.

In terms of valuation, according to Mydrivers, citing analysts, China GPU companies listed in Hong Kong are expected to carry valuations ranging from around HK$30 billion to HK$100 billion, with Kunlunxin’s valuation likely positioned toward the upper end of that range.

Kunlunxin Expands AI Chip and Software Ecosystem

EE Times China notes that Kunlunxin has built a full-stack AI foundation spanning architecture, chip design, software systems, and application scenarios by leveraging Baidu’s AI ecosystem. The report adds that its “CUDA-like ecosystem” secured a strong share in China Mobile’s procurement, highlighting its competitiveness in software ecosystem compatibility.

On the product side, Jiemian reports that Kunlunxin’s roadmap includes the M100, optimized for large-scale inference and slated for launch in 2026, and the M300, targeting ultra-large multimodal model training and inference workloads, expected in 2027.

STAR Market Daily further notes that the Tianchi 256 and Tianchi 512 supernodes unveiled alongside the roadmap are also planned for launch in 2026, with a single Tianchi 512 reportedly capable of training trillion-parameter models.

China’s Domestic AI Chip IPO Wave Accelerates

Regarding its financial performance, EE Times China reports that Kunlunxin generated revenue of approximately RMB 2 billion in 2024 while recording a net loss of around RMB 200 million. The company is expected to increase revenue to more than RMB 3.5 billion in 2025 and achieve breakeven. More notably, the report states that external customers accounted for over 50% of revenue in 2025, suggesting Kunlunxin is no longer solely dependent on Baidu as an “exclusive supplier” while also demonstrating independently validated commercialization capabilities.

Beyond Kunlunxin, STAR Market Daily notes that Alibaba-backed chip company T-Head was also reported in January to be preparing for an independent listing. Founded by Alibaba in 2018, T-Head primarily focuses on AI chips and RISC-V ecosystem technologies.

Beginning in late 2025, China’s domestic AI chip sector entered a new wave of IPO activity. As noted by STAR Market Daily, MetaX and Moore Threads were listed on the STAR Market in December 2025, while Biren and Iluvatar CoreX completed listings in Hong Kong.

Read more

• [News] China AI Chipmakers Step Up Hong Kong IPO with Baidu Kunlunxin Filing, Biren HK$5.58B Listing
• [News] Alibaba Chip Unit T-Head Reportedly Eyes Spinoff & IPO; AI Chip Said Comparable to NVIDIA H20

(Photo credit: Kunlunxin)