Final pricing on October 26 will show how Hong Kong investors value factory robots sold on an AI label when profits are thin and only one small cornerstone has committed.
Changzhou-based Microintelligence opened books on Tuesday for a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise up to about HK$800 million. The company is offering 37,275,800 H shares at HK$16.63 to HK$21.46 each, with 10% reserved for Hong Kong retail investors and 90% for institutions, The Paper reported. The retail offer closes at noon on October 23, the final price is expected on October 26, and trading under stock code 3275 is scheduled for October 28, although Bamboo Works gave October 27.
Orient Securities (Hong Kong) is the sole sponsor. A single cornerstone investor has committed about HK$15.7 million, roughly 2% of the maximum amount Microintelligence aims to raise. The Paper identified the investor as 易北莱茵投资有限公司 and highlighted the single cornerstone in its headline.
The offering is a test of how the market prices a manufacturer that markets its factory robots as embodied AI. Microintelligence says it is China’s largest supplier of what it calls embodied intelligent industrial robots, or EIIR, with about 20% of the market by 2025 revenue, a ranking from research the company commissioned from China Insights Industry Consultancy.
Revenue has nearly doubled while profit stays thin
Revenue rose from RMB434 million in 2023 to RMB600 million in 2024 and RMB795.5 million in 2025, according to The Standard and a Sing Tao report republished by Ifeng. Earnings have swung: a loss of about RMB113 million in 2023, a profit of RMB15.7 million in 2024 and RMB5.1 million in 2025. In the first five months of 2026, profit rose to RMB22.5 million on revenue of about RMB424 million.
Bamboo Works reported that the company expects full-year 2026 profit to come in below the five-month figure because of continued research spending. Sing Tao’s figures show why margins are slim: government grants fell from RMB21.5 million in 2023 to RMB2.3 million in 2025, research and development absorbed RMB235 million, or 29.6% of revenue, last year, and customers took an average of 256 days to pay. Operating cash flow turned positive for the first time in 2025, at RMB141 million.
The robot line now drives growth. EIIR revenue climbed from RMB114 million in 2023 to RMB453.3 million in 2025, rising from about a quarter to 57% of sales, and reached 61.4% in the first five months of 2026, according to TNGlobal.
A quality-inspection vendor rebuilt itself through two acquisitions
Microintelligence was founded in Changzhou in 2018 and began by selling AI visual inspection systems that detect surface defects on production lines. TechNode traced its shift toward robotics to the December 2022 acquisition of Jiangsu Zhiyun Tiangong, whose founder, Zhang Zhiqi, became chairman in January 2023 and is now chairman and chief executive. In 2025 the company added Agilebot, a maker of robot hardware and motion control. Its robots are sold for inspection, grinding, assembly and loading in electronics, autos, new energy and semiconductors.
Zhang has been candid that inspection alone was too small a business. In a September interview with China Securities Journal, republished by 10jqka, he said the market for quality inspection on its own is not large, and that customers will buy a robot when they can recover its cost within two years.
At the midpoint price, net proceeds would be about HK$641.5 million after roughly HK$68.6 million of listing expenses, The Paper reported. The company plans to put 60.3% of that, about HK$387 million, into core research, including an end-to-end industrial model that links vision, language and robot actions. Sales outside mainland China remain tiny: RMB963,000 in the first five months of 2026, according to The Paper.
Pricing will show whether the embodied-AI label carries a premium
Chinese robotics and AI companies continue to line up for Hong Kong listings, a trend EastFrontier covered in Citi’s view that China AI listings will continue in Hong Kong. Microintelligence received its China Securities Regulatory Commission filing notice on August 24, as Bamboo Works reported in September, and passed its exchange hearing on October 9.
Pre-IPO backers include an industrial machinery fund holding 9.21%, Wuxi Hongtai, Chengwei Capital and a Shenzhen venture capital fund, according to the company’s application proof filed with the exchange. Funding rounds from 2019 to 2025 raised more than RMB800 million, National Business Daily reported when the company first filed.
The price set on October 26, and whether it lands near the top or bottom of the HK$16.63 to HK$21.46 range, will be the first market verdict on whether investors pay for the embodied-AI story or for the RMB5.1 million in profit behind it.