GDS Holdings Limited (09698.HK) saw its stock soar by 12.05% during Tuesday's intraday trading session, as investors reacted positively to news surrounding its data center REIT offering and broader market trends in the AI sector.

The primary catalyst for the surge was the announcement that Southern GDS Data Center Closed-end Infrastructure Securities Investment Fund had prematurely closed its public offering segment due to overwhelming demand. The REIT's institutional bookbuilding phase attracted subscriptions 166 times oversubscribed, with pricing set at RMB 3.00 per unit. With a total issuance of 800 million units, the C-REIT is poised to raise approximately RMB 2.4 billion, significantly surpassing market expectations.

Analysts view this development positively for GDS Holdings. Industrial Securities highlighted that the REIT's valuation could reset benchmarks across China's IDC sector, while HSBC projected that the spin-off would aid in deleveraging, potentially maintaining GDS's net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio below 6.5x this year. Furthermore, the stock's rally was part of a broader uptrend in AI-related stocks, following NVIDIA's announcement of approved H20 chip exports to China, signaling potential growth in the domestic AI computing market.