Innovation Horizons: Asia-Pacific - Seeking Sovereign Stability in 2026 & Beyond (HSBC Innovation Banking)

Summary

• In Q1 2026, IPOs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK) raised $14 billion, marking a nearly 500% increase year-over-year.p.11
• Domestic venture capital funds deployed $10 billion locally in India in 2025, representing 40% of the total venture capital dollars invested within the country.p.8
• Domestic policy supporting family office expansion in Singapore resulted in a 50x AUM increase to $100 billion by 2025.p.9
• Venture acquisitions of Asia-Pacific and Middle East startups by Western firms experienced a 65% drop in deal count in 2025 as local acquirers stepped in.p.3
• PsiQuantum raised a $750 million Series E equity round along with $200 million in debt financing, tied to building a utility-scale quantum computing facility in Australia.p.19

Key insights

1. Capital and deal flow for IPOs in Hong Kong SAR surged 60% through 2025 into 2026 as regulatory easing permitted mainland Chinese firms to dual-list on the HKEX.p.3
2. Singapore and Australia/New Zealand saw venture deals targeting AI startups climb to more than half of total tech deals by 1H 2026.p.3
3. Foreign investors withdrew nearly $45 billion from the Indian equity market in the past year during a transition toward domestic retail ownership.p.6
4. India faces significant compute capacity shortfalls, housing only 5% of global data centre capacity despite generating 20% of global demand.p.8
5. Australian venture capital firms raise only about 60% of the capital needed by domestic startups, driving companies to seek funding in Singapore, the UK, and the US.p.13
6. Sovereign wealth funds backed only one major consumer-focused venture deal in A&ME since November 2022, shifting 74% of large deals toward Western AI model developers.p.14
7. China accounted for 61% of A&ME Robotics & Drones venture deals and 70% of Advanced Manufacturing deals in 2025.p.18
8. Western acquirers accounted for fewer than 20% of $100m+ startup acquisitions in A&ME in 2025, down from peak historical shares.p.21
9. Unicorns that raised capital in the past year show that while 30% focus on AI, those AI companies represent over 80% of total aggregate valuation.p.22
10. India's compute demand exceeds its internal capacity by 4x, prompting $125 billion+ in data centre infrastructure commitments.p.28