Alibaba-backed AI Speech moves forward with Star Market listing plan, aiming to raise US$1.5 billion in Shanghai IPO

AI Speech, a speech recognition and AI chip company, enters into the Q&A portion of the Shanghai bourse listing application it filed in July

The company is in the early stage of a vetting process that typically takes over a year

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A sign for STAR Market, China’s Nasdaq-style tech board, at the Shanghai Stock Exchange, pictured on July 22, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:30am, 5 Aug 2022

AI Speech, an Alibaba-backed company involved in speech recognition and AI chip design, has moved a step forward in its quest for a public listing on Shanghai’s Star Market.

The Jiangsu province-based company began completing a Q&A from the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday, representing the second step in a vetting process that normally takes well over a year.

The company aims to raise 10.3 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) from an eventual initial public offering (IPO), it said in a filing submitted in July. Its target is not far from the biggest IPO on the Star board this year; chipmaker Hygon Information Tech raised US$1.6 billion earlier this month.

AI Speech plans to issue new shares equivalent to no less than 10 per cent of its enlarged issued share capital, according to a heavily redacted draft prospectus. Other terms of the proposed offering are not available. The company said it would invest the net proceeds from the listing in internet-of-things (IoT) technology and its dialogue user interface (DUI), its core technology.

AI Speech’s speech-recognition and AI technologies find use in smart cars. Photo: AI Speech Weibo

After answering queries from the Shanghai bourse operator, AI Speech still needs to jump through several more hoops, the next one being vetting by the exchange’s listing committee.

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