Montage overtakes CATL as AI chip demand lifts prices of dual-listed stocks

Montage Technology has overtaken Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) as the most expensive dual-listed stock in Hong Kong and mainland China. The price surge came on a wave of demand for specialized semiconductors for artificial intelligence systems.

AI chip demand is lifting the whole market

The global race for AI leadership is driving demand for specialized semiconductors at an unprecedented scale. Major cloud providers such as Google, Meta* and Amazon, along with firms building their own LLMs, are investing record sums in high-performance GPUs and specialized chips for training and running complex models. That creates unprecedented demand for companies that design such semiconductors and work on the next generation of high-efficiency architectures.

The trend began back in 2023, when ChatGPT set off an explosion in LLM popularity. But in 2025–2026 demand has grown so much that even Nvidia and AMD supplies cannot keep up with the market's needs. As a result, companies that develop their own chips for specific tasks, such as data compression, model serving and specialized computing, have gained enormous value in investors' eyes.

• Cloud providers are expanding data centers to meet growing demand for AI services
• Large tech firms are developing their own chips to cut computing costs
• Competition among Nvidia, AMD, Intel and Chinese manufacturers is pushing innovation upward
• Global investment in AI infrastructure exceeds 500 billion dollars a year

Montage Technology in the spotlight

Montage Technology is one of the leading fabless semiconductor designers, specializing in chips for data centers and high-performance computing. The company is in an exceptionally strong position because its products are directly tied to the infrastructure on which large language models run and are trained.

Investors expect demand for its chips to grow exponentially over the next five years, which makes the stock especially attractive to funds betting on the AI theme. Montage's share price reflects this optimism, overshadowing more traditional companies, even those that had larger market capitalizations a few years ago.

Montage's rise to the top of the list of the most expensive dual-listed stocks, ahead of CATL, illustrates a deep reorientation of financial markets: batteries, cars and logistics (CATL's historical focus) are fading into the background as capital flows into AI infrastructure.

Dual listing, the Hong Kong premium and market signals

When a company's stock trades on two geographically separate exchanges, its price often differs depending on trading volume, regulation, currency risk and the investor mix on each exchange. The Hong Kong exchange has historically attracted a larger share of foreign investors thanks to greater liquidity, transparency and openness to international capital, which often leads to a higher valuation.

The Hong Kong premium can serve as a sensitive indicator of global funds' and investors' appetite for a particular segment of Chinese companies. When the Hong Kong price rises 20–30% above the mainland price, it signals that global capital is actively buying the stock in expectation of growth.

What this means for the market

Montage Technology's climb to the top of the dual-listing price ranking reflects the scale of the investment boom around artificial intelligence and the infrastructure that supports its development. Companies tightly tied to AI hardware are attracting unprecedented capital, pushing even large, established firms in traditional industries into the background.

For investors, traders and analysts, this is a signal: the market is ready to pay a serious premium for access to companies that power and scale the AI revolution.

*Meta has been designated an extremist organization and is banned in Russia.