O maior IPO de Li Yanhong está chegando.

Autor: Wu Qiong, Investment World

"As quotas are impossible to get."

This scene is unfolding with Kunlunxin. Since submitting a confidential application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the beginning of the year, Kunlunxin's IPO has been getting closer. Now is the stage of fierce competition for cornerstone shares.

Thus, Li Yanhong's largest IPO emerges—according to foreign media reports, Kunlunxin's target valuation is approximately US$50 billion (about 340 billion yuan). If listed, its market value will exceed that of Baidu. With such scale, it's no wonder Kunlunxin is always regarded externally as the most valuable asset in Baidu's AI story.

This decisive battle for Baidu's turnaround will soon see results.

Li Yanhong's largest IPO: will surpass Baidu

At this very moment, the mood is intense.

Time back to the beginning of this year, Baidu announced in a statement—Kunlunxin has submitted a listing application form (Form A1) to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through its joint sponsors in a confidential manner, seeking approval for the listing and trading of Kunlunxin shares on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Since then, Kunlunxin's Hong Kong IPO process has been proceeding quietly. Half a year has passed, and with the continuous progress of IPO preparations, Kunlunxin has arrived at a critical stage before listing. According to The Information, the company has already started contact with potential investment institutions.

This is the final window for investors to enter Kunlunxin through the primary market, but the threshold is not low: reports say that in the placement, Kunlunxin prioritizes investors who commit to purchasing chips, requiring the value of chips purchased to be 3 to 7 times the subscription amount.

This means that if investors want to get a cornerstone stake in Kunlunxin, they must first "allocate goods". As a result, purely financial investors might be left out. Kunlunxin prefers industrial investors who have the capacity for continuous procurement.

Only a few can ultimately get onto the table. An investor told Investment World, "The competition for cornerstone shares is fierce," and more people face a "difficult situation to get a seat."

Undoubtedly, the outside world has high hopes for Kunlunxin. It is reported that Kunlunxin's target valuation is about US$50 billion (approximately 340 billion yuan). This is not unfounded. According to IDC data, in the 2025 China AI accelerator server market, Kunlunxin and Cambricon are tied for third place among domestic manufacturers, each shipping about 116,000 cards.

Earlier, a Goldman Sachs report pointed out that if the market gives Kunlunxin a valuation multiple similar to Cambricon, the equity value held by Baidu could be as high as US$22 billion. And with the explosion in AI computing power demand, Cambricon's market value once exceeded one trillion yuan this week.

Thus, the fierce competition for Kunlunxin's cornerstone shares has emerged.

Of course, Baidu will be the biggest winner. Recalling that at the beginning of the year, Li Yanhong explained in the announcement one of the benefits of Kunlunxin's spin-off listing: it would enhance Kunlunxin's image among its customers, suppliers, and potential strategic partners to gain more business, and Baidu would also benefit from its growth through shareholding.

The effect is immediate. After this news spread, Baidu rose for four consecutive trading days, and its Hong Kong stock market value exceeded 300 billion Hong Kong dollars. If Kunlunxin achieves its target valuation of US$50 billion, as its controlling shareholder, Baidu's stake will be worth over 100 billion yuan. In this way, Li Yanhong will also usher in another highlight moment—Kunlunxin's market value will surpass Baidu's.

Investors gather: waiting for a super return

Secret, low-key, yet it has become Li Yanhong's proud achievement.

The story of Kunlunxin can be traced back to 2011, its predecessor being Baidu's Smart Chip and Architecture Department. A team from leading companies including Baidu, Qualcomm, Marvell, and Tesla began Baidu's chip-making journey.

Until 2021, Baidu spun off its Kunlun chip business and established a new company—Kunlunxin (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. Along with the spin-off came a lavish fundraising round, led by CPE Yuanfeng, with investors including IDG Capital, Junlian Capital, Yuanhe Puhua, etc., at a valuation of about 13 billion yuan at that time.

From then on, Kunlunxin became known to the outside world.

However, this was also the only time Kunlunxin publicly announced its fundraising. But according to Qichacha, Kunlunxin underwent multiple equity changes over five years, with many well-known investment institutions joining the table one after another—in July 2022, new shareholders included General Technology Venture Capital, Sino-Belgium Fund, Qianshan Capital, etc.; just half a month later, CITIC Securities and Linxin Investment also became shareholders.

In 2023, BYD, Zhongguancun Science City Company, Sanya Yuhai Fund, China Internet Investment Fund, etc., appeared one by one; subsequently, there were also the Social Security Fund Zhongguancun Independent Innovation Special Fund, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Shunxi Fund, CSC Financial, etc., making the lineup increasingly luxurious.

Perhaps the IPO move was already brewing; in July last year, Kunlunxin added 15 new shareholders at once, including funds under China Mobile, Beijing Government Guidance Fund, Beijing Shangan Junta Fund, Guohai Innovation Capital, CICC Capital, etc., with the competitive atmosphere sparking imagination.

To date, Kunlunxin has gathered 57 shareholders. It is foreseeable that with Kunlunxin's listing, another wave of collective wealth creation will occur in Hong Kong.

Backed by resources from a big company, Kunlunxin is already formidable. Currently, Kunlunxin's main product is the P800, launched in 2024, competing with NVIDIA's A800, using Samsung's 7nm process, mainly targeting data center inference scenarios. Additionally, the Kunlunxin M100, optimized mainly for large-scale inference scenarios, was launched in early 2026. The Kunlunxin M300, targeting ultra-large-scale multimodal model training and inference scenarios, is planned for launch in 2027.

Compared to peers, Kunlunxin not only has order support from internal business lines within the group, such as search, cloud computing, and autonomous driving; it also has large state-owned enterprise clients like China Mobile, China Southern Power Grid, and China Merchants Bank. Among the most crucial deals was last August, when Kunlunxin ranked first in all three bid packages in a China Mobile centralized procurement project, securing a billion-yuan order.

Our child is growing up; Kunlunxin is stepping out from Baidu's protection. At the recent Zhiyuan Conference, Qi Wei, Kunlunxin's Vice President of R&D, revealed that in addition to supplying chips to Baidu, the company's commercialization scale for external customers continues to expand, and now external business accounts for more than the supply to Baidu internally.

"Early start, late finish": a decisive battle

This day, Li Yanhong has waited for a long time.

Speaking of which, Baidu was the first internet company to shout "All in AI". During the hundred-model war, Baidu's ERNIE Bot debuted early, becoming one of the first ChatGPT-like products in China, enjoying a moment of glory.

However, reality is harsh.

After years of market turbulence, the domestic large model landscape has been set—on one side, products like Doubao and Qianwen from other big companies are gradually capturing user minds; on the other side, AI newcomers have also caught up. Last week, Zhipu's market value briefly exceeded one trillion yuan. Although it has since fallen back, it is still nearly three times Baidu's valuation.

Not to mention, DeepSeek's post-first-round financing valuation is close to 400 billion yuan; Kimi's valuation also rose to US$31.5 billion (about 210 billion yuan) in the latest round. In contrast, Baidu has repeatedly left the impression of "getting up early but arriving late for the market."

Under such circumstances, it's hard for Baidu not to be anxious.

Right now, this is an opportunity Baidu cannot afford to miss. Moore Threads, Muxi, etc., have set examples in the secondary market; Cambricon also once reached a new market cap high; even more anticipated is Changxin Technology, which has successfully passed the IPO review on the STAR Market... It is evident that the explosive growth in AI computing power is transmitting throughout the entire semiconductor industry chain.

In Baidu's AI story, Kunlunxin is precisely considered the most valuable underlying asset. In early May, Kunlunxin formally initiated its STAR Market IPO guidance, simultaneously advancing the "A+H" dual listing. Facing a fleeting window, Baidu is racing against time to seize the opportunity.

This reminds me of a decade ago when Li Yanhong predicted that the era of artificial intelligence was coming and would bring endless possibilities. "For Baidu, if it can seize the opportunity of AI, in five to ten years, Baidu can become a completely different company."

If it misses the chance again, it will truly fall behind for good.