U.S. banks are playing a significant role in financing the Chinese technology sector, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) among the firms leading a wave of fundraising. According to data from LSEG, U.S. banks have helped arrange 19 Chinese high-tech share sales worth $17.2 billion this year, representing nearly 30% of the sector's total issuance. These deals span industries including artificial intelligence, chips, and data-center infrastructure.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is participating in this trend, having helped bring Victory Giant Technology’s roughly $2.6 billion share sale to market. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also worked on offerings from AI developer MiniMax and chipmakers Montage Technology and Iluvatar CoreX. Additionally, the three banks assisted in the $6.8 billion Hong Kong listing of optical-components maker Zhongji Innolight.
The financial activity comes as U.S. and Chinese leaders prepare to meet, with AI expected to be on the agenda. Despite geopolitical competition, the financial ties remain strong. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong investors now hold more than $750 billion in U.S. equities, a figure that has increased by 23% over the past year. Furthermore, Chinese and Hong Kong investors participated in roughly $8.9 billion of U.S. AI funding rounds through mid-September, a substantial increase compared to the $436 million recorded in 2023.
Regarding the geopolitical landscape, Polymarket traders currently assign a 10% probability to the U.S. and China agreeing to "pace the AI frontier" by Dec. 31. A 'Yes' resolution on the market requires both governments to commit to measures that actually slow AI development, such as safety conditions on model training, compute caps, or limits on AI systems building more powerful successors.
