Alibaba spins off T-Head for hong kong listing; domestic AI chip shipments rank second in china

Alibaba has confirmed the plan to spin off its chip division, T-Head, for an independent listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange via a global H share offering. The company formally submitted the spin-off application to HKEX on November 10, 2026, following an initial confidential application submission on September 11, 2026. While T-Head is expected to remain a subsidiary, the final offering size and Alibaba's stake are yet to be determined. T-Head, established in 2018, develops AI chips, server CPUs, SSD controllers, and IoT chips. IDC data indicates that in 2025, the company's cloud AI accelerator shipments totaled 265,000 units, placing it second in the Chinese market, trailing only Huawei. As of April 2026, the Zhenwu series AI chips had shipped 560,000 units to over 400 customers across more than 20 industries, and the firm's annualized revenue surpassed RMB 10 billion. The company recently introduced advanced products, including the Zhenwu M890 training-and-inference integrated chip in May 2026, which features 144GB of memory and 3 times the performance of the 810E. Furthermore, T-Head released the AI software stack, T-Head SAIL, in July 2026. Plans suggest the Hong Kong listing could occur in 2027, targeting a valuation between USD 25 billion and USD 62 billion, with an intended fundraising goal of USD 2 billion to USD 3 billion.