Robin Li's Biggest IPO Is Coming
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Robin Li's Biggest IPO Is Coming
Window period.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Wu Qiong, PEdaily
"Can't get the allocation."
This scene is unfolding at Kunlunxin. Since submitting its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in confidential form at the beginning of the year, Kunlunxin's listing has drawn nearer. Now is the stage for scrambling for cornerstone allocations.
Thus, Robin Li's largest IPO emerges—according to foreign media reports, Kunlunxin's target valuation is approximately $50 billion (about 34 billion RMB). If listed, its market cap will exceed Baidu's. With such scale, it is no wonder Kunlunxin is always regarded by the outside world as the most valuable asset in Baidu's AI story.
The outcome of this battle for Baidu's turnaround will soon be revealed.
Robin Li's Largest IPO Will Exceed Baidu
At this moment, sentiment is running high.
Time returns to the beginning of this year, when Baidu announced in a notice—Kunlunxin has submitted a listing application form (A1 Form) to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in confidential form through its joint sponsors, to apply for approval for Kunlunxin shares to be listed and traded on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Since then, Kunlunxin's HK IPO moves have remained underwater. Now half a year has passed, and as IPO preparation work continues to advance, Kunlunxin has reached a critical pre-listing stage. According to The Information, the company has currently begun contact with potential investment institutions.
This is the last window for investors to enter Kunlunxin through the primary market, but the threshold is not low: reports state that Kunlunxin prioritizes investors committed to purchasing chips during placement, requiring the value of purchased chips to reach 3 to 7 times the subscription amount.
This means that if investors want to get Kunlunxin's cornerstone allocation, they must first "bundle goods." As a result, pure financial investors might be blocked outside. Kunlunxin prefers industrial investors who themselves possess continuous procurement capabilities.
Only a few can ultimately make it to the table. An investor told PEdaily, "Cornerstone allocation competition is fierce," and for more people, "a seat is hard to come by."
Undoubtedly, the outside world has high hopes for Kunlunxin. It is reported that Kunlunxin's target valuation is approximately $50 billion (about 34 billion RMB). This is not groundless; according to IDC data, in the 2025 China AI accelerator server market, Kunlunxin and Cambricon tie for third place among domestic manufacturers, each shipping about 116,000 cards.
Previously, Goldman Sachs research reports pointed out that if the market gives Kunlunxin a valuation multiple similar to Cambricon, the value of Baidu's held equity will reach as high as $22 billion. And just as AI computing power demand explodes, Cambricon's market cap briefly broke 1 trillion RMB this week.
Thus, the scene of fierce competition for Kunlunxin's cornerstone allocation emerged.
Of course, Baidu will be the biggest winner. Recalling that at the beginning of the year, Robin Li explained in the announcement that one of the benefits brought by Kunlunxin's spin-off listing would be to enhance Kunlunxin's image among its customers, suppliers, and potential strategic partners to win more business, Baidu will also benefit from its growth through shareholding.
The effect was immediate. After this news broke, Baidu rose for four consecutive trading days, with the latest HK market cap exceeding 300 billion HKD. If Kunlunxin's $50 billion target valuation is realized, as its controlling shareholder, Baidu's shareholding value will exceed 100 billion RMB. Thus, Robin Li also welcomes another highlight moment—Kunlunxin's market cap will exceed Baidu's.
Investors Gather, Waiting for a Super Return
Secretive, low-key, yet it has become one of Robin Li's proudest works.
Kunlunxin's story can be traced back to 2011 at the earliest, predecessor was Baidu's Intelligent Chip and Architecture Department. A team from top companies such as Baidu, Qualcomm, Marvell, and Tesla opened Baidu's path to chip creation.
Until 2021, Baidu formally spun off its Kunlun chip business and established a new company—Kunlunxin (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. Along with independence came a luxurious financing round, led by CPE Source Peak, with investors including IDG Capital, Legend Capital, Oriza Holdings, etc., valued at about 13 billion RMB at the time.
Since then, Kunlunxin began to be known by the outside world.
However, this was also the only time Kunlunxin publicly announced financing. But according to Qichacha, Kunlunxin completed multiple equity changes over five years, with many well-known investment institutions taking their seats one after another—In July 2022, new shareholders such as Genertec Venture Capital, China-Belgium Fund, and Qianshan Capital were added; only half a month later, CITIC Securities and Linxin Investment also became Kunlunxin shareholders.
In 2023, BYD, Zhongguancun Science City Company, Sanya Yuhai Fund, China Internet Investment Fund, and others appeared one by one; thereafter, there was no lack of faces such as the Social Security Fund Zhongguancun Independent Innovation Special Fund, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Shunxi Fund, CSC Financial Capital, etc., making the lineup increasingly luxurious.
Perhaps the listing move was planned long ago; last July, Kunlunxin added 15 shareholders at once, including funds under China Mobile, Beijing Government Guidance Fund, Beijing Shandong Hi-Speed Juntai Fund, Sealand Innovation Capital, CICC Capital, etc., the scramble implying much food for thought.
To this day, Kunlunxin has gathered a total of 57 shareholders behind it. It is foreseeable that with Kunlunxin's listing, it will create another wave of collective wealth creation in the HK stock market.
Backed by major tech company resources, Kunlunxin cannot be underestimated. Currently, Kunlunxin's main product is the P800, launched in 2024, benchmarking NVIDIA A800, using Samsung 7nm process, mainly targeting data center inference scenarios. In addition, Kunlunxin M100, mainly optimized for large-scale inference scenarios, will launch in early 2026. Kunlunxin M300 is mainly targeting ultra-large-scale multimodal model training and inference scenarios, planned to launch in 2027.
Compared with peers, Kunlunxin not only has order support from group internal business lines such as search, cloud computing, and autonomous driving; but also has large state-owned enterprise customers such as China Mobile, China Southern Power Grid, and China Merchants Bank. The most critical deal among them was last August, in the China Mobile centralized procurement project, Kunlunxin ranked first in all three bid packages, securing a billion-level order.
Our son has just grown up; Kunlunxin is walking out from Baidu's protection. At the recent BAAI Conference, Kunlunxin Vice President of R&D Qi Wei revealed that besides providing chips for Baidu, the company's commercialization scale for external customers continues to expand, and currently the proportion of external business has exceeded supply to Baidu internally.
"Started Early but Arrived Late" Turnaround Battle
Robin Li has waited a long time for this day.
Speaking of which, Baidu was the earliest internet company to shout "All in AI". During the Hundred Models War, Baidu's ERNIE Bot debuted first, becoming one of the earliest ChatGPT-like products domestically, once unrivaled in glory.
However, reality is harsh.
After several years of weeding out through big waves, the pattern of domestic large models has been set—on one side, Doubao, Qianwen, etc., also from big tech companies, gradually occupy user mindshare; on the other side, AI newcomers have also surpassed them from behind. Last week, Zhipu AI's market cap briefly broke 1 trillion RMB. Although it has fallen back currently, it is still nearly equivalent to three Baidus.
Not to mention, DeepSeek's post-money valuation in its first financing round approached 400 billion RMB; Kimi's valuation also rose to $31.5 billion (about 210 billion RMB) in a new round of financing. In contrast, Baidu has repeatedly left the outside world with the impression of "starting early but arriving late."
In this situation, it is hard for Baidu not to be anxious.
Right now, it is an opportunity Baidu cannot miss. Moore Threads, MetaX, etc., have already set examples in the secondary market; Cambricon also once created a new high in market cap; even more watched is CXMT, currently its STAR Market IPO has successfully passed approval... Visible to the naked eye, the explosive growth of AI computing power is transmitting to the entire semiconductor industry chain.
And in Baidu's AI story, Kunlunxin is precisely regarded as the most valuable underlying asset. In early May, Kunlunxin formally launched STAR Market listing guidance, simultaneously advancing "A+H" dual-line IPO. Facing the fleeting window period, Baidu is desperately scrambling for the time window.
This reminds people that ten years ago, Robin Li judged that the artificial intelligence era was coming and would bring endless possibilities. "For Baidu, if it can seize the opportunity of artificial intelligence, in five to ten years, Baidu can become a completely different company."
Once missed again, it will truly fall behind completely.
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