
Credit: Li Auto
Chinese companies last year rushed to Wall Street even as tensions — and some regulatory battles — between China and the United States intensified.
New U.S. laws brought a higher level of scrutiny to Chinese companies’ finances last year. A November executive order banned Americans from investing in Chinese military affiliates, taking aim at names like Huawei and major state-owned enterprises. Several were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and more were removed from indices.1The Wire has previously written about the executive order and the companies affected by it. In December, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act became law, which will force overseas companies to give U.S. regulators audit access or face delisting.
Still, Chinese initial public offerings kept coming. The U.S. can be a land of opportunity for private Chinese companies, notably technology startups, to raise short-term capital. Listing in New York also helps some to maneuver around Chinese currency controls, and U.S. exchanges have had less stringent restrictions for fast-growing companies. A Wall Street debut lends name recognition and certain lustre.
This week, The Wire looks at Chinese companies that listed on Nasdaq in 2020, the most likely destination for growth-oriented companies. We also zero in on Li Auto, the electric vehicle company that was the largest Chinese IPO on the exchange.
What’s the Trend?

Data: Dealogic
More Chinese companies listed on Nasdaq in 2020 than any year since 2010, data from Dealogic shows. And more companies flocked to Nasdaq in the last two years, from 2018 to 2020, than in the previous eight years combined, its data shows.
Overall, 2020 showed the best performance debuts for newly listed Chinese companies since 2014. Chinese companies raised nearly $12 billion in their IPOs — a several year high — and the NYSE drew its share of big Chinese companies. The online real estate platform KE Holdings known as Beike Zhaofang in China, financial services provider Lufax, and retailer MINISO2Read The Wire’s reporting on MINISO’s debut listed on the NYSE last year as well as Li Auto’s competitor rival, XPeng, backed by Alibaba.3Alibaba, which raised $25 billion in its Wall Street debut in 2014, was the biggest IPO of all time on the exchange.
Covid Crop of Tech
Startups rooted in remote work and communication came to Nasdaq in a year unsettled by the Covid-19 pandemic. Six of the newly listed companies are in medicine, healthcare, or insurance. Another three are in education. Tech-based companies, ranging from BlueCity’s dating apps to Kingsoft’s cloud services, also filled the board.
Two of the newly listed companies, Agora and LIZHI, jumped in recent weeks following Clubhouse’s short-lived popularity in China. Clubhouse, an invite-only social platform where users can talk in online rooms, was banned in China after a few weeks of uncensored conversation. Investors flocked to Agora, whose software kit was used to build the app, and more than doubled its market cap to $10 billion since late January. LIZHI offers a similar interactive platform for users to share audio, and capital poured in with anticipation of Clubhouse users switching to the Chinese app.
Many companies found significant new sources of capital in their listings, with nearly a third surpassing billion-dollar market caps. Learn more about the 26 Chinese companies that listed on Nasdaq in 2020 below.

Data: Dealogic, S&P’s CapitalIQ, company websites
Li Auto Soars
Li Auto’s debut outstrips any Chinese company that listed on Nasdaq in 2020. The electric vehicle startup had a $1.1 billion IPO last summer, becoming the fourth-largest Chinese IPO on Nasdaq in the last decade. It has more than doubled its market capitalization to nearly $30 billion.
Selling its first car near the end of 2019, Li Auto had a notable year. It outsold Xpeng in December, another NYSE newcomer that has been selling EVs since 2018. It lagged behind Nio, which has been selling cars since 2016. Tesla still outshines other electric vehicle manufacturers, but the total sales of Li, Xpeng, and Nio in China reflect a growing consumer demand. In September, Tesla sold 13,000 cars compared with Li, Xpeng, and Nio’s combined total of 12,000, according to data from CAIN.
Li Auto’s largest shareholders have experience in technology companies tied to consumer and auto needs. Chairman Li Xiang previously founded Autohome Inc., an NYSE-listed company that offers comparison shopping and reviews for vehicles. Li Auto’s next-largest backer, food delivery platform Meituan, has invested in other transportation technologies including ride hailing, parcel delivery, and autonomous driving.
See more about Li Auto’s ownership and business below.


Hannah Reale is a staff writer with The Wire. Previously, she reported for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, The West Side Rag, and her college newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus. @hannahereale