Qiming View | Three AI IPOs in First Weeks of Year: Qiming Venture Partners' Alex Zhou on Following Power Law, Betting on Long Slopes and Big Tracks in Tech

In just the first 40 days of 2026, five AI-related hard tech companies — Biren Technology, Iluvatar CoreX, Zhipu AI, MiniMax, and Axera — have reached IPO milestones through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's "Tech Enterprise Express Lane."

As one of the most active investors in the AI space, Qiming Venture Partners accounts for more than half of these deals. What's more, Qiming was the earliest-round investor in both Biren Technology and Axera, and one of only two leading independent institutional investors for Zhipu AI under Chapter 18C.

Alex Zhou, Managing Partner at Qiming Venture Partners

Reflecting on this "harvest season," Alex Zhou is visibly moved. "I genuinely didn't expect to see three portfolio companies go public within the first month of the year in my career. This achievement is both surprising and precious."

Zhou points out that this success stems from a triple tailwind of era, policy, and market; at the same time, it serves as the most robust validation of Qiming's entire investment logic and methodology for AI hard tech.

"We've always believed that venture investing follows the power law — a small number of exceptional projects generate outsized returns and become the core value drivers of the entire fund. That's why in our early-stage deployment, we consistently focus on technology targets in long slopes and large markets," Zhou says. "Of course, we also strive to be the co-pilot and navigator on a company's journey. Only through genuine capital commitment and holding a meaningful stake can we accompany and witness a company through its arduous path forward — and as investors, receive enormous returns beyond just financial gains."

Additionally, regarding this wave of hard tech IPOs, Zhou believes that going public is never something forced — it's something grown into. "Only with genuine hardcore value creation capabilities that can sustain long-term development can a company achieve a reasonable market cap. That's when an IPO becomes truly valuable, when it's truly a natural culmination."

And as one of the most important investors behind these three companies, Zhou has spoken repeatedly at their listing dinners: an IPO is not the finish line — it's merely reaching the 5,200-meter Everest Base Camp. The real challenge is the push toward the 8,848-meter summit. An IPO is not a victory podium, but a staging ground to face even greater challenges, to gather strength and resources, to build momentum for what's next.

"I'm a heavy consumer of history, especially tech history. Just as NVIDIA, after its IPO, leveraged the capital and brand boost to innovate continuously and truly embark on its path to dominance. So I hope that whether it's these three companies or our other portfolio companies, they can all achieve more innovation and faster acceleration after going public," Zhou said.

Below are selected excerpts from Alex Zhou's conversation:

IPO Zaozhidao: Having three hard tech IPOs in the first month-plus of 2026 must be quite gratifying?

Alex Zhou: I genuinely didn't expect to see three portfolio companies go public within the first month of my career. This achievement is both surprising and precious. Qiming Venture Partners was not only an early investor in all three companies — I personally served as a board member at each prior to their listings, accompanying them from startup stage all the way to the capital markets.

This success is fundamentally about standing at the crest of the AI technology wave — coinciding with the institutional innovation dividend of Hong Kong's Tech Enterprise Express Lane, which allows quality hard tech companies to gain capital market recognition earlier, and benefiting from the market's high attention and enthusiasm for AI themes. It's a triple tailwind of era, policy, and market.

IPO Zaozhidao: This must also further strengthen your confidence?

Alex Zhou: This result of riding the momentum more corely validates Qiming Venture Partners' long-held investment methodology and underlying convictions.

We firmly believe that investing in AI is the greatest certainty in Chinese investing over the next two decades. Since 2013, we've been deeply rooted in the AI track, building full-industry-chain coverage from infrastructure layer to model layer to application layer. We adhere to a "half-step ahead" investment logic — making decisive moves when technological breakthroughs have been validated but market consensus hasn't yet formed. At the same time, we deeply empower companies through "early involvement, full-journey companionship," escorting them from core R&D breakthroughs to commercialization to capital market listing. The successful IPOs of these three companies are the most robust validation of our entire AI hard tech investment logic and methodology.

IPO Zaozhidao: Among these three companies, Qiming was among the top two financial investors in each, and invested at the earliest stages of their development. What characteristics do tech companies need to have for you to bet on them early and continue doubling down?

Alex Zhou: Biren Technology, Zhipu AI, and Axera each have their own unique traits and strengths, but what enabled us to make decisive early bets and continue investing lies in Qiming's consistent investment philosophy.

We've always believed that venture investing follows the power law — a small number of exceptional projects generate outsized returns and become the core value drivers of the entire fund. That's why in our early-stage deployment, we consistently focus on technology targets in long slopes and large markets — from Biren's cloud GPUs to Zhipu's large models to Axera's terminal and edge-side AI inference chips, they're all in core tracks of the AI ecosystem with vast market space and rigid industrial demand — golden tracks combining technical depth with commercial value. Beyond quality track fundamentals, all three teams possess deep domain expertise in their respective fields, unique understanding of industrial needs, and the execution capability to translate technology into commercial value — which is also key to our early focus and long-term companionship.

Of course, we also strive to be the co-pilot and navigator on a company's journey. Only through genuine capital commitment and holding a meaningful stake can we accompany and witness a company through its arduous path forward — and as investors, receive enormous returns beyond just financial gains.

IPO Zaozhidao: This wave of tech company listings might make some entrepreneurs and companies think "going public seems pretty easy" and start preparing themselves. But capital markets are also ever-changing. In your view, what should companies focus on to naturally reach the IPO milestone?

Alex Zhou: An IPO is never forced — it's grown into. Every post-IPO company has a market cap, and valuing that market cap is essentially the capital market's discounted expectation of its sustained value creation capability. Only with genuine hardcore value creation capabilities that can sustain long-term development can a company achieve a reasonable market cap. That's when an IPO becomes truly valuable, when it's truly a natural culmination. Conversely, lacking this core capability, a company that goes public may flash across the sky like a shooting star and vanish, which would actually have negative consequences for the company's own development.

IPO Zaozhidao: In other words, an IPO is merely a beginning.

Alex Zhou: I've spoken at these companies' listing dinners about how an IPO is not the finish line — it's merely reaching the 5,200-meter Everest Base Camp. The real challenge is the push toward the 8,848-meter summit. An IPO is not a victory podium, but a staging ground to face even greater challenges, to gather strength and resources, to build momentum for what's next.**

I'm a heavy consumer of history, especially tech history — NVIDIA went public on Nasdaq in January 1999. At that time, there were several players roughly on par with NVIDIA, such as ATI Technologies, 3dfx Interactive, and S3 Graphics. After its IPO, NVIDIA leveraged the capital, brand, and other benefits to innovate continuously and truly embark on its path to dominance. For example, two years post-IPO in 2001, NVIDIA launched the GeForce 3, the industry's first programmable GPU. The successful validation of programmable computing made NVIDIA realize that GPU potential far exceeded graphics rendering. CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) was officially released by NVIDIA in November 2006, a milestone: for the first time, it expanded the GPU from traditional graphics rendering into general-purpose parallel computing scenarios, providing efficient hardware acceleration for the large-scale matrix operations required by deep learning. These innovations established NVIDIA's market position today.

Therefore, I hope that whether it's these three companies or our other portfolio companies, they can all achieve more innovation and faster acceleration after going public.

Source | IPO Zaozhidao

Author | Stone Jin

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Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. The firm currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since its inception, Qiming has focused on investing in outstanding early and growth-stage companies in Technology and Healthcare innovation.

To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative companies, of which more than 210 have listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means. Over 80 companies have become recognized unicorns or super-unicorns.

Many Qiming portfolio companies have grown into the most influential companies in their respective fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE:ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), Hesai Technology (NASDAQ:HSAI, 02525.HK), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ:WRD, 00800.HK), HyperStrong (688411.SH), Insta360 (688775.SH), Unisound (09678.HK), Biren Technology (06082.HK), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ:SDGR), MicroPort EP MedTech (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), Amoy Diagnostics (300685.SZ), SinoCellTech (688520.SH), Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), Hope Medicine, Yuanxin Technology, MediLink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, Zhipu AI, StepFun, among others.