Alibaba announces plans to list T-Head, its Nvidia chip rival

Wang Zhao | Afp | Getty Images

Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba announced late Tuesday that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will allow the company to spin off its semiconductor subsidiary T-Head.

To do so, Alibaba said it plans a public offering for shares of T-Head in Hong Kong, subject to approval from the exchange and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The filing did not disclose a date or proposed size of a listing.

Alibaba noted it had already filed confidentially on Sept. 11 to list T-Head on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba traded 1% lower Wednesday morning. The stock is down about 29% year-to-date.

In late September, Alibaba announced its next-generation AI chip, the Zhenwu V900, that it said delivers three times the performance of its predecessor, the Zhenwu M890 released in May.

Alibaba is one of several Chinese companies, including Huawei, developing homegrown semiconductors to power artificial intelligence, amid growing U.S. restrictions on China's ability to access the chips.

Short seller Culper Research alleged in May that Alibaba was able to obtain restricted Nvidia chips by indirectly financing entities in Southeast Asia. Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

News of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affair with an alleged Chinese spy involved with one of those entities has dragged down the stock to its lowest valuation since late March, weighing on the overall U.S. stock market.

Amid the tech stock volatility, U.S.-based AI giant Anthropic said in an updated filing Tuesday that it will offer 825 million shares in its upcoming IPO at a price range between $70 and $78 per share.

Trading on the Nasdaq is expected to begin on Nov. 19, people familiar with the details told CNBC. They were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Chinese tech stocks have underperformed their U.S. peers, despite investor excitement last year around AI breakthroughs by DeepSeek.

Baidu has reportedly delayed the listing of its AI chip entity Kunlunxin, as has Chinese memory chip company YMTC, according to news reports this month. Neither company immediately responded to requests for comment.

In the last few months, China's financial regulators have increased their scrutiny on tech IPOs and the rush of capital into the sector.

—CNBC's Fred Imbert, Ashley Capoot and Leslie Picker contributed to this report