Hong Kong stock market can help emerging AI companies raise money: HKEX CEO Bonnie Chan

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing will host Capital Markets Forum in May

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Bonnie Chan Yiting, the CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 8:30pm, 18 Feb 2025Updated: 9:05pm, 18 Feb 2025

Hong Kong’s capital markets can help artificial intelligence (AI) companies raise funds as the recent DeepSeek-driven rally has shown global investors want to buy technology stocks listed in the city, the CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) said on Tuesday.

“Companies that are developing AI need a lot of capital,” Bonnie Chan Yiting said on a panel at the Capital Markets Forum (CMF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “That is the reason why we have seen the current rally in Hong Kong.”

The Hang Seng Tech Index has surged more than 35 per cent in the month or so since Hangzhou-based DeepSeek unveiled an open-source reasoning model that was comparable with those developed by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google – but at a much lower cost.

Chan said the DeepSeek breakthrough and the success of other AI models have piqued global investor interest in Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks.

“All of a sudden, the world is waking up to the fact that the development of AI can be put to use and fuel the growth of the real economy,” she said.

“Just a year ago, people around the world were saying China is uninvestable. We have seen two rallies since September, with the Hang Seng Index rising about 20 per cent last year and gaining another 15 per cent this year.”

She added that trading volume had lately been impressive, with daily turnover of more than HK$300 billion (US$38 billion) over the past five sessions, far higher than an average of HK$131.8 billion in 2024.