Alibaba Discloses T-Head’s Sept. 11 Hong Kong Listing Application

Key Facts

Alibaba disclosed on Nov. 10 that its T-Head unit had confidentially filed for a Hong Kong listing on Sept. 11, 2026, after the exchange confirmed it could proceed with the proposed separation. The group said in its filing that the application was submitted using Form A1 and that T-Head was wholly owned by Alibaba at the time of the announcement. The unit is expected to remain a subsidiary of Alibaba after the proposed listing. The offering would allow investors to assess T-Head’s performance and potential separately from the rest of the group, the company said. Alibaba said the listing could give investors an opportunity for direct exposure to its chip business and could also open an independent route to equity and debt markets for the unit.

The announced structure proposes a global offering combining a Hong Kong public offering with an allocation of H shares to institutional and professional investors. But the offering size and final structure, as well as the extent of any reduction in Alibaba’s stake in T-Head, have yet to be decided. The group said the percentages applicable to the transaction would be below the 5% threshold, so the transaction, if it proceeds, would not be a discloseable transaction under Hong Kong listing rules. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange also granted Alibaba a waiver from the requirement to ensure that the group’s shareholders had an entitlement to T-Head shares. Alibaba attributed its waiver request to the burden of a U.S. public offering and legal and operational restrictions in China.

The proposed separation remains subject to approval by Hong Kong’s Listing Committee, completion of a filing with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and final decisions by Alibaba and T-Head. The group said there was no guarantee that the transaction would proceed or when it would be completed. A separate listing could give T-Head direct and independent access to capital markets, according to Alibaba’s filing, and could also improve its ability to obtain bank credit facilities. The group describes T-Head as a leading provider of integrated data-center chips that enable system-level computing solutions in China. The business places the unit at the heart of Alibaba’s investments in computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Figures published by Alibaba in May showed that T-Head had shipped more than 560,000 chips from its Zhenwu family by then. The group said more than 400 external customers across 20 sectors had used the chips, including automotive and financial services companies. In announcing the Zhenwu M890 chip, Alibaba said its performance was three times that of the previous-generation Zhenwu 810E. It added that the chip has 144 gigabytes of on-chip memory and inter-chip bandwidth of 800 gigabytes per second. By the quarter ended June 30, 2026, more than 650 external customers across more than 20 sectors had adopted Zhenwu chips through Alibaba Cloud, the group said.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, Alibaba’s cloud and AI computing services revenue rose 45% year over year to 48,437 million yuan, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 133% to 5,628 million yuan. Revenue from AI-related products reached 12,376 million yuan, marking the 12th consecutive quarter of triple-digit year-over-year growth, according to the group’s results. From April to June, capital expenditure rose 75% to 67.7 billion yuan as the company invested in AI infrastructure, while quarterly profit fell 75% to 10.5 billion yuan from 43.1 billion yuan a year earlier, according to the Associated Press. In September, Chief Executive Eddie Wu described the Zhenwu V900 as China’s most powerful AI chip and said it could deliver performance equivalent to three times that of the M890. Alibaba shares closed at $102.72 on Nov. 10, according to EL7 data.