Lightelligence, the first mainland Chinese photonics chipmaker to go public in Hong Kong, saw its share price surge by nearly 400 per cent in its trading debut on Tuesday, as investors banked on the country’s quest for a fast-growing alternative to conventional electronic semiconductors in artificial intelligence data centres.

The Shanghai-based company opened at HK$880, versus the offer price of HK$183.2 – the top of its marketed range of HK$166.6 to HK$183.2. It raised HK$2.4 billion (US$310 million) in its initial public offering (IPO).

On the grey market on Monday, its shares surged 353.1 per cent to 380.4 per cent on major brokerage platforms in the city, after the retail tranche was oversubscribed 5784.7 times during the share sale period.

Its debut underscores how the country’s makers of photonics chips – once confined to scientific research – are capitalising on the surging global demand for AI workloads to step up production and commercialisation.

Unlike conventional graphics processing units (GPUs) that rely on electrons moving through silicon, optical computing chips use photons to carry out computations and data transmission.

Founded in 2017 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained scientist Shen Yichen, Lightelligence said it was the first company to achieve large-scale deployment of hybrid optical-electronic computing globally.