Four companies began trading in Hong Kong on Tuesday after raising a combined HK$14.4 billion ($1.8 billion), marking one of the city’s busiest days for new listings in a blockbuster year. Robo Technik Intelligent Technology Co. completed the largest deal of the four, raising $660 million after its Shenzhen-listed shares more than doubled this year. The maker of equipment and software that help solar-panel and silicon-photonics chip factories automate production drew cornerstone investors including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte, Sunpeak Asset Holdings Ltd., and E Fund Management Co. The shares traded about 2% below the listing price on the gray market late Monday, according to a trading platform operated by KGI Securities Co.

Fundraising by artificial intelligence-linked companies has driven a surge in Hong Kong first-time share sales even as broader equity markets whipsawed with geopolitical tremors and waves of impact from the evolving AI landscape. Initial public offerings, share placements and block trades in the city raised $45.5 billion in the third quarter, a record for the period and just shy of the all-time quarterly high of $47.6 billion reached in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The other three companies include Shenzhen Kinwong Electronic Co., a printed circuit-board maker with a 2.5% global market share, that raised $650 million. Red Avenue New Materials Group Co., a chemical products maker, completed a $382 million offering, and robotics components maker Direct Drive Tech Ltd. raised $138 million. Kinwong was down about 7%, Red Avenue dropped about 17%, while Direct Drive was up about 5% on the gray market late Monday, according to KGI’s platform.

“People are rewarding growth and are excited by the size of the markets that many AI companies are targeting and the whole value chain,” said Stanislas Chanavat, principal of private equity technology at Pictet Alternative Advisors. Some of this year’s biggest deals in Hong Kong include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $10 billion follow-on offering in August, optical transceiver maker Zhongji Innolight Co. raising nearly $8 billion in its Hong Kong listing, as well as Z.AI Co.’s $5 billion stock-and-convertible sale in mid-September.