昆仑芯拟赴港IPO，募资或不超过20亿美元

Group 1 - The core point of the news is that Kunlun Chip, a subsidiary of Baidu, is planning to go public in Hong Kong with an IPO fundraising target of up to $2 billion [1] - Baidu announced that Kunlun Chip submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 1, 2026, and the proposed split will involve a global offering of Kunlun shares [1][3] - The split aims to enhance Kunlun Chip's image among clients and partners, improve its negotiation position, and allow it to independently access equity and debt capital markets [4] Group 2 - Kunlun Chip, as one of the earliest players in the AI accelerator chip sector in China, was valued at 13 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) during its first round of financing in April 2021 and reached a valuation of 21 billion yuan ($3 billion) after its latest round in July 2025 [3] - According to IDC, Kunlun Chip ranks third in the Chinese GPU market, with Nvidia holding a 70% market share and Huawei's Ascend at 23% [3] - Nomura forecasts that Kunlun Chip's revenue will reach 6.6 billion yuan ($0.93 billion) in 2026, driven by the demand for large language model inference chips, and has raised Baidu's target stock price from $140 to $178 [5]