Montage, which produces data center memory interface chips that allow artificial intelligence networks to transfer data more efficiently between processors and memory, saw its shares open at HK$168, well above the offer price of HK$106.89, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The stock rose as high as HK$171 before paring gains to trade around HK$163. Early on Monday, it was the third most actively traded stock by turnover.
The Shanghai-listed company offered 65.9 million shares in Hong Kong at a maximum offer price of HK$106.89 each. According to its prospectus, the IPO proceeds will be used not only for research and development but also for commercialization efforts, strategic investments or acquisitions, and working capital needs.
Demand for the offering was strong, with the retail tranche more than 700 times oversubscribed and the international tranche more than 37 times oversubscribed, according to the company’s allotment results released on Friday. The deal attracted 17 cornerstone investors committing a total of $450 million, including JPMorgan Asset Management, UBS Asset Management and Yunfeng Capital.
Founded in 2004, Montage is the world’s largest supplier of memory interconnect chips, with a 36.8% global market share by revenue in 2024, according to its prospectus citing consultancy Frost & Sullivan.
The company reported strong financial growth, with revenue rising 58% year on year to 4.1 billion yuan ($591 million) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2025, compared with 2.6 billion yuan a year earlier. Net profit over the same period climbed 64% to 1.6 billion yuan.
Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law and former head of North America for China Investment Corporation, said U.S. sanctions restricting China’s access to advanced chips such as those made by Nvidia are accelerating capital flows and policy support for China’s domestic semiconductor supply chain, including so-called middleware chip designers like Montage.
“The strong lineup of global cornerstone buyers suggests that Chinese AI-related IPOs are attracting institutional investors back to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange market again,” Ma said.
He added that Montage’s Hong Kong listing highlights how China’s AI chip ecosystem is moving “up the stack,” from basic components to more specialized chips that link processors and memory inside data centers.
Montage’s debut comes as Hong Kong records its strongest start to a year since 2021, with IPOs and secondary listings raising about $5.5 billion in January, the highest January total since $7.6 billion was raised in 2021, according to data from LSEG.
Upcoming listings are expected from Axera Semiconductor and industrial automation equipment manufacturer Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment.
CICC, Morgan Stanley and UBS acted as joint sponsors for Montage’s Hong Kong offering.
