Business Brief (Sept. 5): Nasdaq to Toughen IPO Rules for Chinese Firms

The Nasdaq stock exchange is preparing to raise IPO entry requirements for Chinese companies by instituting a minimum fundraising threshold of $25 million. Market analysts estimate that this change could result in a 40-50% decrease in new Chinese listings on Nasdaq over the second half of 2025, but may also increase the valuation of top Chinese firms seeking to list in the U.S. market. [para. 2]

China's State Council announced ambitious plans for its sports industry, targeting growth to over 7 trillion yuan (about $965.7 billion) by 2030. The initiatives include promoting sports consumption (especially in low-altitude and winter sports) and supporting the emergence of internationally competitive Chinese sports enterprise groups. [para. 3]

Huawei has launched the Mate XTs Ultimate Design, a trifold smartphone powered by the new Kirin 9020 chip and the HarmonyOS operating system, starting at 17,999 yuan. The event is notable as it marks the return of Huawei's Kirin chips after a four-year absence at launch events. [para. 4]

Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met on September 4, affirming close ties and calling for greater strategic cooperation in international and regional matters to safeguard mutual interests. [para. 5]

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to implement a new U.S.-Japan trade agreement, clarifying that Japanese imports previously subjected to higher tariffs will not be taxed twice, and that products with former tariffs below 15% will move to new rates. [para. 6]

China has imposed tariffs up to 78.2% on certain U.S. fiber optic products following its first anti-circumvention investigation. This action comes amid ongoing antidumping measures and focuses on categories where Chinese imports of similar U.S. goods have risen. [para. 7]

On September 4, Agricultural Bank of China's A-shares rose over 5%, propelling its market capitalization past that of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for the first time. [para. 8]

A court has issued an injunction barring a former Chinese employee from joining OpenAI after Elon Musk accused him of downloading the entire xAI codebase and possibly revealing trade secrets to competitors. The former employee must also cooperate with an ongoing investigation. [para. 9]

Cambricon (688256.SH), a Chinese AI chipmaker, saw its share price drop over 15% intraday, closing down 14.45% with a valuation of approximately 502.8 billion yuan. Over five days, the stock has fallen 25% from its August 28 peak. [para. 10]

Lightelligence, a Chinese photoelectric computing firm, completed a Series C funding round exceeding 1.5 billion yuan. The company specializes in photonic networks and photonic chips. [para. 11]

ByteDance has officially denied circulating rumors about spinning off its chip business to a Singapore-based entity, stating that no organizational changes have occurred and dismissing reports of layoffs as misinformation. [para. 12]

Upcoming events include the U.S. release of August nonfarm payrolls data and the election of a new Thai prime minister on September 5, as well as an OPEC+ meeting on oil production and the release of China's August foreign exchange reserves on September 7. [para. 13-16]

China's State Administration for Market Regulation is developing international standards for brain-computer interfaces. From January to July, wind and solar energy contributed 24.9% (1.36 trillion kWh) to China’s electricity production. China also released guidelines to address overcapacity in solar and lithium battery sectors and promotes mining safety via robotics, while Tencent upgraded its Hunyuan game visual platform. [para. 17-21]

Internationally, Disney agreed to a $10 million penalty for violating child privacy, ChatGPT will launch parental controls for teens, Starbucks initiated AI-powered inventory counts, and the White House withdrew a WTO funding cut. The Trump administration’s freeze on Harvard research funding was ruled unconstitutional (with an imminent appeal). Malaysian officials said U.S. trade policy is stable, and both Indonesian and Malaysian leaders have discussed major infrastructure projects with China. [para. 22-30]