From Autonomous Driving to Physical AI! Momenta, the First Physical AI Stock, Lists on Hong Kong Exchange, Surges Over 6% at Open, Market Cap Tops HK$71 Billion

Physical AI company Momenta officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) today (8th), with stock code 06880.HK, becoming the 'first physical AI stock' on the Hong Kong market. The opening price was HK$301 per share, approximately 1.8% above the IPO price of HK$295.6, and surged over 6% during early trading. The market capitalization at opening was approximately HK$71 billion, rising 3.45% to HK$305.58 by midday.

Momenta's global offering involved approximately 22.93 million shares, raising a total of about HK$6.8 billion, making it one of the largest technology IPOs in Hong Kong recently.

The cornerstone investor lineup for Momenta's IPO was exceptionally strong, including 14 major institutions: Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC), Fidelity International, BlackRock, Mercedes-Benz Group, Oaktree Capital, Jin Xing, Franklin Templeton, Boyu Capital, Highstreet Asset Management, China Pacific Insurance, GF Fund, China Asset Management (Hong Kong), Suzhou Expressway, and Zhaoyi Innovation.

Additionally, top global institutions such as China Investment Corporation (CIC), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Wellington, Schroders, Temasek, JPMorgan Asset Management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and UBS Asset Management actively participated.

Insiders revealed that securing a cornerstone investment spot in Momenta was 'extremely difficult,' with demand comparable to that seen during Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL)'s IPO.

GIC has previously invested in Anthropic and TSMC, while Fidelity has backed AI chip firms like Cambricon. The collective investment by these 'high-growth tech-only' funds underscores their confidence in Momenta's pure AI credentials.

Experts noted that seeing GIC, BlackRock, Temasek, Mercedes-Benz, and BYD all on the same subscription book is extremely rare in recent Hong Kong IPOs. This is not just an IPO, but a joint declaration from global capital.

Momenta's IPO was met with strong demand. The Hong Kong public offering was oversubscribed by 413.63 times, while the international offering attracted over HK$100 billion in institutional orders from sovereign wealth funds and long-term investors across 15 countries and regions. Excluding cornerstone investors, the international portion was oversubscribed by 44 times.

According to the prospectus, approximately 60% of the IPO proceeds will be used to strengthen core R&D, including the R7 world model and data loop toolchain. About 20% will accelerate the commercialization and scaling of Robotaxi services, 10% will reinforce mass-production vehicle solutions, and the remaining 10% will serve as working capital.

On the eve of listing, Momenta announced that its mass-production business had surpassed one million vehicle units deployed—a milestone and a new starting point. To date, Momenta has delivered solutions to over 100 mass-produced vehicle models, with cumulative design wins exceeding 210 models.

In 2016, Cao Xudong and several co-founders established Momenta in Zhongguancun, Beijing. Before founding the company, Cao dropped out of a direct PhD program in physics at Tsinghua University, transitioned into AI research at Microsoft Research Asia, and later served as R&D Director at SenseTime, where he turned his focus to autonomous driving.

At the time, the industry was heavily betting on L4 solutions, with companies showcasing demos and test vehicles. Cao, however, established Momenta's 'one data flywheel, two business legs' strategy: providing L2+ ADAS solutions for mass-market vehicles to collect real-world driving data, which would then feed back into algorithm optimization, ultimately supporting scalable L4-level autonomous driving services like Robotaxi. This technical path was later validated as a viable commercial model.

This strategy allows Momenta to provide high-level ADAS solutions to OEMs, generating real-world data and revenue, while simultaneously using that data to iterate algorithms and develop advanced L4 autonomous driving solutions. The company aims to use a single large model to cover passenger vehicles, Robotaxi, and Robovan.

In April this year, Momenta's R7 reinforcement learning world model achieved mass production debut, marking the formal transition of physical AI from a technical concept to scalable mass deployment. The model was trained on a system built from over 12 billion kilometers of real-world driving data, incorporating a three-layer technical architecture of pre-training, simulation, and reinforcement learning. Momenta thus became the world's first third-party intelligent driving company to achieve nationwide coverage of mapless urban NOA, the first to mass-produce end-to-end large models, and the first to mass-produce reinforcement learning models. The R7 world model is also the industry's first mass-deployed world model.

Momenta's market position can be summarized with one data point. According to CIC Consulting, from March 2025 to February 2026, Momenta holds a 65% sales volume market share in China's third-party urban NOA supplier market, ranking first. The market is dominated by two leaders, with Momenta and Huawei together capturing about 80% of the market.

In terms of customer expansion, Momenta has established partnerships with 24 global automakers, covering all major Chinese passenger vehicle manufacturers and nine of the world's top 10 automakers. Its client list includes Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, General Motors, Toyota, SAIC, BYD, and Geely.

The prospectus shows Momenta operates two main businesses: mass-production solutions for OEMs and scalable autonomous driving services. From 2023 to 2025, technology development service revenue rose from RMB 720 million to RMB 1.03 billion and then to RMB 1.44 billion. Licensing service revenue increased from RMB 20 million to RMB 290 million and then to RMB 970 million. During the same period, the company's overall gross margin surged from 17.5% to 71.6%.

From 2023 to 2025, Momenta's revenue grew from RMB 743 million to RMB 1.325 billion and further to RMB 2.413 billion, tripling over three years with a CAGR exceeding 80%.

The shift in revenue structure is even more critical. Momenta's revenue is divided into technology development services and licensing services.

Technology development revenue increased from RMB 719 million to RMB 1.445 billion, while licensing revenue skyrocketed from RMB 23 million in 2023 to RMB 968 million in 2025—a more than 42-fold increase over three years. Licensing revenue, charged per mass-produced vehicle, has high marginal profitability. In 2023, 96.8% of revenue came from technology development services; by 2025, this dropped to 59.9%, while licensing services rose to 40.1% of total revenue.

Profitability improvements are even more significant. Momenta's gross margin jumped from 17.5% in 2023 to 71.6% in 2025. As of last year, Momenta's cash reserves exceeded RMB 10 billion.

Regarding book losses, net losses from 2023 to 2025 were RMB 2.57 billion, RMB 3.21 billion, and RMB 3.458 billion, respectively. However, these losses are primarily due to non-cash items such as changes in fair value of preferred shares, not operational losses. After adjusting for non-operating items like share-based payments, adjusted losses narrowed from RMB 1.09 billion in 2023 to RMB 300 million in 2025. The actual cash outflow last year was only RMB 280 million, with operating cash outflows decreasing by nearly 75% over three years.

In R&D investment, Momenta spent RMB 1.869 billion last year, accounting for 77.5% of its revenue.

Momenta's listing on HKEX marks a landmark event in the capitalization of the physical AI sector. With 414 times public oversubscription, capital from 15 countries, and 14 ultra-premium cornerstone investors, these figures collectively illustrate a strategic bet by global capital on the physical AI sector.

With a 65% market share in third-party urban NOA, nine of the world's top ten automakers as clients, and a revenue growth curve from RMB 743 million to RMB 2.413 billion over three years, Momenta has solidified its position as the 'first physical AI stock' on HKEX. However, the challenges it faces are equally clear.

Against the backdrop of global giants like NVIDIA and Tesla accelerating their intelligent driving strategies, technological iteration pressure remains intense. Whether Momenta can maintain its 65% market share amid fierce industry competition remains to be seen. The market will continue to watch whether Momenta can gradually reduce losses and achieve a commercial positive feedback loop while maintaining technological leadership.