Wall Street Banks Finance Both Sides Of America’s AI Race With China
Wall Street’s biggest banks were helping finance America’s artificial intelligence boom while simultaneously raising billions of dollars for Chinese companies competing to build Beijing’s domestic AI and semiconductor industries.
Jack McGeever · Sep 24, 2026 · 4 min read
Wall Street’s biggest banks were helping finance America’s artificial intelligence boom while simultaneously raising billions of dollars for Chinese companies competing to build Beijing’s domestic AI and semiconductor industries.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and JPMorgan have participated in major Chinese AI, semiconductor and technology offerings in 2026 as Washington sought to restrict China’s access to sensitive American technology and investment. Wall Street banks acted as bookrunners on 19 Chinese high-tech equity deals worth $17.2 billion this year, accounting for nearly 30% of the sector’s total issuance, according to LSEG data reported by Reuters.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup were among the joint global coordinators for Chinese optical component manufacturer Zhongji Innolight’s roughly $6.8 billion Hong Kong share offering this summer.
The deal came after the Department of Defense added Zhongji to its list of Chinese military companies in June. Zhongji, which makes optical transceivers used to move data inside AI data centers, generated 61.7% of its first-quarter revenue from the United States and said the Pentagon designation had not affected its orders or operations.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman also worked on Hong Kong offerings for Chinese AI developer MiniMax and semiconductor companies Montage Technology and Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor, according to Reuters.
JPMorgan played a direct role in another Chinese AI supply-chain financing. J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Limited identified itself as a joint sponsor of Victory Giant Technology’s Hong Kong global offering in an April filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Victory Giant manufactures printed circuit boards used in AI servers and raised roughly $2.6 billion through the Hong Kong share sale, according to Reuters.
U.S. technology companies increasingly turned to bond markets, banks and private lenders to finance the data centers, power infrastructure and computing equipment required for AI. Goldman Sachs estimated that nearly $500 billion of AI-related debt had been issued in 2026 as of August.
JPMorgan estimated the five largest U.S. hyperscalers will spend roughly $697 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 as companies race to add computing capacity.