MetaX, Moore Threads IPOs exploded, but it’s not easy for foreigners to join the party
A pictorial shows the Moore Threads logo on a smartphone in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, China, on October 30, 2025.
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China’s hottest AI charts are making eye-popping gains.
Shares of chipmaker MetaX Integrated Circuits soared nearly 700% in its Shanghai market debut last week, while Moore Threads soared more than 400% on its first day of trading earlier this month.
While domestic investors scramble to get into promising Chinese tech listings, foreign investors are largely left out of such blockbuster offerings.
Foreign retail investors, in particular, are being excluded from IPOs in China: “It’s not even possible. Unless they open an account with a Chinese broker,” said Chris Zhang, managing director of Chinese financial services company China Fortune Securities Company.
Opening an onshore brokerage account with a Chinese securities firm requires a linked Chinese bank account; this account usually requires proof of residence in China or a sufficiently valid Chinese visa. Foreigners must also own other shares listed on the mainland to be eligible to participate in the IPO lottery.
Zhang said most foreign banks do not have the necessary regulations to support account openings with Chinese brokers, making the process unworkable for the vast majority of retail investors abroad.
Official guidance from Shanghai city government It notes that only a narrow group of foreign individuals can open direct brokerage accounts for Class A shares listed in mainland China. For example, foreigners with permanent resident status, workers in China, or foreigners working abroad in A-share companies with capital incentive schemes.
For many global investors, Stock Connect, a program that allows stock exchanges in Hong Kong and mainland China to have mutual access to each other’s stocks, is the most convenient way to invest in Chinese stocks.
This allows overseas investors to purchase Class A shares through Hong Kong brokers without the need for an onshore account or special licenses; but the scheme provides little help when it comes to IPOs or even newly listed stocks. Access also depends on: Eligibility requirements for Hong Kong brokers, Such as minimum account balances and risk disclosures.
“Stock Connect is not working because newly listed stocks are not yet included in Stock Connect. It usually takes a few weeks to months for stocks to become available,” said Theodore Shou, chief investment officer at Skybound Capital.
Incorporation of companies Stock Connect diagram depends on whether a stock meets eligibility rules, such as sufficient trading activity and market capitalization; this typically requires a trading period and data history to qualify.
Institutional exposure
Shou said northbound trading, meaning overseas and Hong Kong investors buy stocks in mainland China through Stock Connect and other schemes, won’t be possible until “usually several months after any listing.” Even then, there’s no guarantee Moore Threads and MetaX will be included.
Overseas retail investors can gain limited exposure through offshore funds investing in Class A shares.
Foreign retail investors interested in STAR Market IPOs, such as Moore Threads and MetaX, can invest in funds located outside China that invest in Class A shares, and often these funds can participate in IPOs, Shou said.
China’s STAR Market is a Nasdaq-style technology board in Shanghai with a focus on strategic sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence and biotechnology, with looser profitability requirements and tighter access for foreign retail investors.
“But such participation will be indirect, very limited and mostly meaningless,” he cautioned, as IPO allocations may be very small relative to the fund’s total assets.
While foreign retail investors are largely blocked from accessing IPOs in mainland China, some large institutions can participate in them.
A program for Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors, or QFIIs, allows approved global institutions to invest directly in Chinese equities, including through IPOs. But it is designed for large asset managers, sovereign wealth funds and banks, not individual investors.
QFIIs include hundreds of participants, as well as investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, as well as central banks.
QFII and renminbi QFII programs are programs that allow approved institutional investors to trade onshore A shares and participate in IPOs, but foreign exchange registration and clearing is supervised by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or SAFE, and requires approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
Although China’s QFII and RQFII regimes do not set clear asset size or operating history thresholds, applicants solid financial situationrelevant investment experience, robust governance and compliance systems and a clean regulatory record.
They must also make a designation land manager and complete foreign exchange registration with SAFE.
The CSI 300 Information Technology Index, which measures the performance of China’s CSI 300-listed information technology companies, is up 32% so far, while the benchmark CSI 300 is up 17% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng Tech Index is up 24% so far this year.
