Chinese face recognition firm Megvii denies report it is mulling delay of Hong Kong IPO after US blacklisting
- Megvii’s cloud-based identity authentication platform processed about 2.4 million daily face ID verification requests on average in first six months of this year
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Megvii Technology dismissed a report that it is considering a delay in its Hong Kong initial public offering over US trade blacklist concerns.
The IPO, which could raise as much as US$1 billion, is expected to herald the debut of China’s AI start-ups on secondary markets at a time when the country’s AI ambitions are at the forefront of a trade war with the US.
The denial comes after Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the Beijing-based company is discussing with advisers whether to proceed with the planned offering or hold off while it tries to get removed from Washington’s Entity List, which prevents it from buying key American technology.
The day after the ban was announced, Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs Group said it was reviewing its involvement in the Megvii IPO.
“The delaying IPO report is untrue,” a Megvii spokeswoman said on Wednesday when reached via text. The company declined to make any further comment on the listing.
First filed in August, the IPO application is still in process, with Megvii answering queries from the Hong Kong stock exchange and waiting for a listing hearing, according to a person familiar with the matter.
