This article is written based on public information and is intended solely for information exchange purposes and does not constitute any investment advice.
On September 22, at the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, the highly anticipated optical communication enterprise Ligent Technologies (09856.HK) officially completed its listing. This marks the sixth listed company under Hisense, following Hisense Visual Technology, Hisense Home Appliances, Sanden Holdings, Changelight Technology, and Keli Electric, and also sets a record for the largest IPO scale in the history of Qingdao's capital market.
Jointly sponsored by Citi and CITIC Securities, this IPO has attracted widespread attention since the submission of the prospectus. As one of the few companies globally with the R&D and mass production capabilities for optical modules and optical chips, it is a genuinely scarce target, leaving the market once again in awe of Hisense's technological strength.
With an offering price of HKD 32.96, the total fundraising amount reached approximately HKD 5.67 billion. The Hong Kong public offering was oversubscribed by 35.16 times, and the stock closed up nearly 5% on the first day of the IPO, with a market capitalization approaching HKD 34 billion. At a time when global capital is becoming increasingly picky about pricing AI assets, this optical communication company completed its market debut with an oversubscribed performance.
Why can a well-known home appliance company incubate such an AI hard-tech company pursued by the capital market? And why can it seize the greatest opportunity in the AI era?
01. Who is Ligent Technologies? A "Full-Stack Player" in the Optical Communication Track
The history of Ligent Technologies traces back more than 20 years to an optical communication startup co-founded by Hisense and Dr. Huang Weiping, a global expert in the field of optical communication, starting from a single optical module. Over two decades later, Ligent Technologies has become a globally leading player in optical communication and one of the few companies worldwide with mass production capabilities for optical chips and optical modules.
According to a Frost & Sullivan report, in 2025, Ligent Technologies ranked fifth in revenue among global professional optical module manufacturers and third in China, and ranked second globally in professional optical network terminals. In terms of the global market, its revenue share in professional optical modules was approximately 4%; in the Chinese market, the share was about 10.1%.
Figure: Global and China Optical Module Revenue Ranking (2025), the company refers to Ligent Technologies. Source: Prospectus
As the global demand for optical communication began to explode in 2025, Ligent Technologies also embarked on a fast track of development: in 2025, revenue reached CNY 8.36 billion, a year-on-year increase of 64%, and operating profit was CNY 600 million, achieving exponential growth; according to the latest 1H26 data, revenue in the first half of the year was CNY 5.39 billion, maintaining high growth, with an operating profit of CNY 780 million, a year-on-year growth rate of 214%.
On the product front, the company has become one of the first in China to successfully develop and mass-produce 800G and 1.6T optical modules. In September 2026, Ligent Technologies launched a new generation of 6.4T/3.2T NPO series products at the CIOE exhibition, as well as the 12.8T XPO 8xDR8 optical module based on the LPO architecture.
A more noteworthy change lies in the upstream chips. In 2026, the company's self-developed optical chips achieved scaled mass production and were successfully introduced to global leading customers: in the first quarter, self-developed chips were comprehensively sold at scale externally, and in July, the sales volume of optical chips increased by approximately 18 times year-on-year.
The synergistic effect between chips and modules has been fully unleashed, which also becomes the core logic for the capital market to price it.
02. Hisense's Long-Termism Verified Once Again
1. The Visible Surging Demand for Optical Interconnects in the AI Era and the Insurmountable Technical Wall
The surge in global data traffic and the rise of AI large models have unprecedentedly amplified the weight of "connectivity." Simply put, the ceiling of computing power is half in GPUs and half in optics.
Therefore, AI clusters are driving the optical module market at an almost steep slope. According to data from Frost & Sullivan and LightCounting, the global optical module market will have a compound annual growth rate of 34.2% from 2025 to 2030, and the market size will reach CNY 707.6 billion by 2030.
Further upstream, the optical chip market also has considerable room for growth. LightCounting estimates that the optical communication chipset market will have a compound annual growth rate of 17% from 2025 to 2030, with total sales increasing from approximately USD 3.5 billion in 2024 to over USD 11 billion by 2030.
The demand is vast, but few companies can truly capitalize on this opportunity. Ligent Technologies' rise to the global top 5 and its continuous high revenue growth rely on its technological capabilities on the supply side: reflected on the one hand in the manufacturing of optical modules themselves, and on the other hand in the core components of optical modules—optical chips. Currently, the production capacity of high-end optical chips globally is concentrated overseas, and the vast majority of optical module companies rely mainly on externally sourced optical chips; companies that can simultaneously develop and mass-produce both optical chips and optical modules are few and far between, even on a global scale.
2. Technology-Established Enterprise: Hisense's Patience of Two Decades in the Making
What the market sees today is Ligent Technologies' highlight in optical interconnects, but the starting point of the story traces back to a counter-cyclical move that was misunderstood more than two decades ago.
Turn the clock back to 2003. At that time, the optical communication industry had just experienced a winter, and a saying circulated in the industry: touching optics means certain death. No company was willing to enter this field.
Hisense's judgment was exactly the opposite. Network transmission would inevitably experience explosive growth, and optics was the optimal solution. Thus, Hisense entered the market against the trend, finding a global top-tier talent—Professor Huang Weiping from the School of Information Science and Engineering at Shandong University and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—as a co-founder to do this "difficult but right" thing together.
The following two decades have been Hisense's most familiar script: relentlessly tackling technology and adhering to long-termism. There were no lack of troughs during this period. From 2023 to 2024, affected by the pressure on traditional telecommunications businesses, the company's revenue and profitability fluctuated for a time; however, Hisense did not shrink its R&D, but instead continued to increase its investment in independent chip R&D—this led to the dual realization of technology and capacity when AI demand exploded.
This has led to the results everyone sees today: for example, in optical modules, it is one of the first enterprises in China to successfully develop and mass-produce 800G and 1.6T optical modules, with 3.2T submitted for customer validation, and 6.4T & 12.8T jointly developed with customers; Ligent Technologies has achieved the transition from following and running alongside to leading.
The senior management team of Ligent Technologies, from left to right: Tan Yi, Vice President of Ligent Technologies; Li Dawei, Vice President of Ligent Technologies; Wang Hui, Executive Director, CFO, and Board Secretary of Ligent Technologies; Jia Shaoqian, Chairman of Hisense Group and Non-Executive Director of Ligent Technologies; Zhou Jien, Vice Chairman of the Listing Committee of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong; Yu Zhitao, CEO of Hisense Group and Chairman of the Board of Ligent Technologies; Huang Weiping, Co-founder and Non-Executive Director of Ligent Technologies; Hong Jin, Executive Director and CEO of Ligent Technologies.
The listing of Ligent Technologies is not a coincidence of the tailwind, but the concentrated realization of the compound interest of over two decades of technology in the AI era, and a vivid footnote to Hisense's strategy of establishing the enterprise through technology and long-termism.
03. Hisense's "High-End Transformation" is Moving into the Depth of the AI Industry
Hisense persists in its high-end transformation, and the IPO of Ligent Technologies is another milestone in this transformation strategy. The market is also beginning to gradually understand Hisense's current layout focused on the AI industry chain: over the years, from energy supply to AI infrastructure, then to large model and agent development, and finally to physical layer implementation, Hisense has formed an industrial depth in the AI era.
1. Understanding Hisense's High-End Transformation from a Long-Termism Perspective
China's manufacturing industry is in a critical period of upgrading "from large to strong." Hisense has long broken through the boundaries of single hardware manufacturing and embarked on the path of high-end transformation. In fact, technological long-termism is Hisense's deep-seated gene, which ultimately enhances Hisense's market competitiveness.
The story of Ligent Technologies is a microcosm of Hisense's adherence to technological long-termism. As of now, Ligent Technologies has accumulated 1,581 global patents, led and participated in the formulation of 61 industry standards, and is a founding or member unit of 18 global industry standardization organizations, with its core technological strength firmly remaining in the first tier of the industry.
Hisense's layout in the semiconductor display sector also confirms this technological long-termism. From mass-producing China's first TV digital video processing chip "Xin Chip" in 2005, ending the monopoly of high-end picture quality chips by Japan and South Korea; to establishing a global leading position in the two new display tracks of laser display and RGB-MiniLED: the global shipment share of laser TVs has reached 70.3% (in 2025), ranking first for seven consecutive years; and more recently, taking the lead in launching 3D color control display technology, achieving mass production more than a year ahead of foreign countries.
In addition, unlike the fragmented layout of many enterprises, Hisense implements the "technology-established enterprise" strategy, targeting high-end transformation, and gradually building industrial sectors such as home appliances, semiconductors, smart energy, lasers, automotive electronics, and content platforms, forming an industrial depth adapted to the AI era.
The group now has six listed companies, building a complete industrial matrix covering smart life, computing power infrastructure, core components, etc. In 2025, the group's revenue exceeded CNY 224.4 billion, with overseas revenue accounting for nearly half, and industrial high-endization is the core grip for the company to participate in global competition.
2. High-End Transformation, Centered on the AI Industry Chain
On the eve of the 2026 FIFA World Cup final in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, Hisense held a global customer conference in New York, announcing for the first time the upgrade of its corporate strategy in the AI era: focusing on the core AI industry chain for industrial layout, focusing on "AI + scenarios" innovation, and promoting the evolution of smart devices into smart home companions.
Hisense's AI layout is still accelerating. In September this year, in addition to the listing of Ligent Technologies, Hisense officially released the AI Companion Suite. This is also a heavyweight landing result on the product side after Hisense proposed the AI strategy upgrade, achieving the leap from "passively responding smart devices" to "proactively serving smart home companions."
Hisense's overall AI approach can be summarized as a "1+5" industrial architecture: with smart terminals as the cornerstone business, and AI Hub, semiconductors, energy, lasers, and automotive electronics as the five major growth engines.
The current development of global AI is being constrained by short boards in the industry, so we have observed that global leading AI companies are increasingly focusing on strengthening their "systematic" capabilities, and Hisense has had this mindset from the very beginning. In the AI era, Hisense's latest goal has also been elevated to "fully embrace AI and accelerate the stride towards world-class."
The industry-recognized AI industry chain covers five major levels: data center energy, AI infrastructure, models, agent AI, and physical applications. Breaking it down one-to-one, Hisense's five-layer AI industrial architecture is very clear: systematically building data center energy security, computing power infrastructure, large models and agents, physical AI applications, and the physical application landscape. Currently, it has achieved a complete closed loop of power —> computing power —> model capability —> productivity.
Source: Summary by Jinduan Research Institute
Moreover, in every segment, Hisense's technological strength is remarkable and continues to iterate rapidly:
For example, in terms of energy security, the smart energy sector composed of Hisense's Network Energy, Keli Electric, and Dachi Electric can provide overall energy storage and data center solutions for computing power centers. And in the vision of space data centers, Hisense also has a place: Changelight Technology is a core provider of solar cells for domestic commercial aviation.
The core of the AI infrastructure layer is computing power. As the main carrier reflecting Hisense's computing power capabilities, Ligent Technologies' optical chips and high-speed optical modules have already reached the global top five; and with the implementation of IPO fundraising projects, its capabilities in high-speed optical modules, advanced optical chips, and production capacity will be further enhanced.
In terms of large models, Hisense's self-developed Xinghai Large Model ranks first in the home appliance field of the authoritative C-Eval evaluation.
At the agent level, the AIOS content cloud base and ConnectLife AIoT cloud platform formed by years of deep cultivation: the former achieves "a thousand faces for a thousand people, adapting to time and context," while the latter integrates emotional intelligence into whole-house device control (deploying dedicated AI agents covering five major scenarios: cooking, laundry, air, energy, and services).
The physical AI layer has even greater room for imagination. As a global leader in smart home appliances, Hisense has a first-mover advantage in terms of device stock and data accumulation, and the integration of its self-owned AI models can turn all products into agents; the AI Companion Suite released by Hisense extends AI capabilities from large screens to whole-house categories such as kitchens, laundry, air, and energy management, shifting the home interaction logic to proactive services.
It is believed that with the support of a comprehensive systematic layout and long-termism, Hisense has been fully embedded in the global core AI industry chain, and in the future, it will continue to adhere to AI as the main line to reconstruct core businesses and drive sustainable growth.
04. Conclusion: In the AI Era, Victory Once Again Belongs to Long-Termists
Looking back at the 23 years of Ligent Technologies: it entered the market in the coldest year of 2003 for the industry, polished optical chips and optical modules in years when no one was optimistic, and at the moment the AI wave arrived, it happened to stand at the crest of the wave. The so-called "happened to" has always been another way of writing long-termism.
Returning to the question at the beginning: why can a home appliance company stand at the biggest tailwind in the AI era? The answer is actually very simple: because it chose to do difficult but right things in an era when the tailwind did not even exist. From terminal products such as TVs and refrigerators, to the full-stack layout of optical chips, optical modules, smart energy, and large models, every move Hisense makes is to set off when others hesitate and to cultivate deeply when others chase.
"Establishing the enterprise through technology and operating steadily," this business creed written for more than 50 years, is showing its compound interest effect in the AI era. In the AI era, the competition among global enterprises has also entered a white-hot stage. We believe that opportunities will belong to those full-stack long-termists who have prepared every layer of the industry chain. The IPO of Ligent Technologies is a concentrated echo of Hisense's long-termism in the AI era, and also just another beginning.