Momenta Intelligent Technology has filed with the SFC's Corporate Finance Division for a Hong Kong listing at a valuation that sources close to the bookrunners put in the HK$7.5-8 billion range (roughly $960 million at spot), making it the largest autonomous-driving candidate to test Chapter 18C's specialist technology pathway since the rules were revised in March 2023 to permit pre-revenue issuers with "genuine commercial traction" -- a phrase the listing division has declined to define with a revenue threshold and has instead left to case-by-case committee review. Momenta's most recent disclosed financials show hardware-integration revenue of approximately RMB 380 million against software licensing revenue still in pilot-contract territory, which means the $1 billion headline number is priced on a multiple of the software line that does not yet exist at scale, and the cornerstone allocation structure the company filed will need to absorb the difference between what the arithmetic shows and what the roadshow will claim.

So the number that matters is not the IPO size but the free-float percentage after cornerstone locks expire, because that is what determines whether HKEX's listing operations team can clear the MSCI Emerging Markets inclusion threshold (typically 15 percent free-float with turnover meeting the 0.05 percent of MCAP daily average) at the six-month review window in December 2026, which is the first realistic date the passive bid arrives. If the cornerstones are structured at 50-55 percent of the deal -- the range that has become standard on Chapter 18C tech listings since Calb and Black Sesame set the template -- the free-float lands around 12-13 percent and the passive bid does not come in December; it waits for the lock-up release in Q1 2027, at which point the same early holders assessing an exit and the passive buyers assessing entry are reading the same six-month post-listing trading record at exactly the same moment.