Alibaba files for Hong Kong listing of T-Head chip unit
Alibaba says its AI chip-design arm has confidentially applied to list in Hong Kong, with the deal size and structure still undecided.
Alibaba Group has applied to list its chip-design unit T-Head in Hong Kong, the Chinese technology company said in a statement on Tuesday, November 10. The South China Morning Post and CNA both reported the filing, which moves forward a spin-off of one of the group's artificial intelligence businesses.
CNA reported that T-Head lodged a confidential Form A1 application on September 11, after the Hong Kong Stock Exchange cleared Alibaba to go ahead with the proposed spin-off. The SCMP said the exchange had approved the separation and that the confidential application was filed in September. T-Head will remain a unit of Alibaba, according to the SCMP.
Alibaba has not yet decided the size of the deal, the offering structure or how much of T-Head it will keep after the listing, CNA reported. The listing still needs regulatory approval.
The company said the spin-off would let investors value T-Head and its core businesses separately. It said the listing would also help the chipmaker raise capital on its own and strengthen its ties with customers, suppliers and strategic partners.
T-Head provides full-stack data centre chips, the SCMP reported. CNA said the unit was founded in 2018 and is at the centre of Alibaba's push to build in-house AI and computing capability, as Chinese technology firms try to meet rising demand for AI infrastructure and reduce their reliance on Nvidia's AI processors amid US export restrictions.
In September Alibaba unveiled T-Head's Zhenwu V900 AI processor. The company said it delivers three times the performance of its previous-generation chip and would underpin training and inference for next-generation AI models.
The two outlets described market conditions differently. The SCMP said Alibaba was braving a cooling initial public offering market in Hong Kong to raise funds for its AI ambitions. CNA pointed to January, when Baidu's chip unit Kunlunxin also confidentially filed for a Hong Kong listing, and linked that filing to growing investor appetite for Chinese semiconductor and AI-linked assets.
Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares closed 2.9 per cent lower on Tuesday, CNA reported. They have fallen nearly 30 per cent so far this year.
Sources: South China Morning Post, Alibaba readies T-Head chip IPO as Hong Kong frenzy cools; CNA, Alibaba AI chip unit T-Head files for Hong Kong IPO.
