BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- An artificial intelligence (AI) model in training or a complex scientific simulation needs computing power. The less visible challenge is matching each job with suitable computing resources across a nationwide network.

Beijing Paratera Tech Corp., Ltd. has built its business around that task. Once a computing job is submitted, its scheduling system matches the workload with suitable resources, while its self-developed platform manages and dynamically allocates computing resources nationwide.

The company was still in a phase of rapid expansion and heavy research spending when it listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange, or BSE, on Nov. 1, 2023. It listed under the exchange's second set of standards, centered on market value, revenue growth and operating cash flow, and raised 290 million yuan (about 43 million U.S. dollars) in its IPO. The proceeds have since gone toward core computing-resource scheduling technology and building a nationwide integrated computing network.

Paratera fits the profile the BSE was designed to serve: a smaller, innovation-led business seeking public-market capital while scaling its technology and operations. China announced the exchange on Sept. 2, 2021, as part of efforts to support innovation by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), saying it would be built as the primary platform serving innovation-oriented SMEs.

Five years later, the exchange has grown from 81 companies at the start of trading to 339. More than 60 percent are national-level "little giant" firms, a designation for specialized and innovative SMEs, and the share among companies newly listed in 2026 is close to 90 percent. Companies in strategic emerging industries and advanced manufacturing account for more than 80 percent of listed companies.

The BSE works in tandem with the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, or NEEQ, in a tiered cultivation system for smaller businesses. The NEEQ has served 14,000 SMEs, and nearly 850 companies cultivated through the market have gone on to list in Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. More than 80 percent received funding support while quoted on the NEEQ.

Its rules reflect that role. The BSE uses four sets of listing standards that take into account market value, revenue, net profit and R&D investment, accommodating companies at different stages of growth. Over its first five years, it has helped SMEs raise about 80 billion yuan, with more than 80 percent of the funds raised going to green and low-carbon development, the digital economy, high-end equipment manufacturing and new materials.

For Hubei Kait Automotive Electronic & Electrical Systems Co., Ltd., or KAIT, a maker of automotive sensors and actuators, that financing model has translated into new products. The company moved from the NEEQ to its Innovation Layer and then to the BSE. In its 2023 IPO, KAIT initially earmarked proceeds mainly for controllers and temperature sensors, but later redirected some funds toward automotive actuators as demand surged amid rapid advances in vehicle intelligence across China's new energy vehicle sector.

Its active-grille-shutter actuators have since been installed at scale in new vehicles, expanding the availability of domestically produced alternatives in a segment supplied largely by overseas manufacturers. KAIT has also used equity incentives to attract and retain R&D and management talent and has expanded into areas including data-center liquid cooling and embodied intelligence.

The same pattern appears in very different industries. Beijing Tri-Prime Gene Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has brought a digitalized production facility fully online and is leading a Beijing municipal key laboratory focused on long-acting targeted delivery technologies for peptide and nucleic-acid drugs.

Chairman Cheng Yongqing said listing brought changes beyond financing. Ongoing regulatory requirements, he said, had also pushed the company to strengthen corporate governance, information disclosure, internal controls, R&D and branding.

Across the exchange, R&D intensity and the number of invention patents are both more than twice the average for enterprises above the designated size in China. Eighteen BSE companies have been recognized as manufacturing "single champions," a designation for manufacturers that lead in specialized market segments, while 17 have received national science and technology awards.

Trading activity has grown alongside the market. Average daily turnover has risen from less than 1 billion yuan in the BSE's early days to more than 20 billion yuan so far in 2026, while the number of qualified investors has climbed from about 4 million to more than 11 million. Institutional investors now account for 24 percent of trading, up from 9 percent at the market's launch.

International market advisers have also taken note. A midyear review by KPMG, a global organization of independent professional services firms, said the BSE "stood out" in the first half of 2026, with 36 new listings raising 11.4 billion yuan. Both the number of listings and funds raised were five times their year-earlier levels.

The BSE also sits within a much larger SME economy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its 2026 review of SME financing that SMEs contribute roughly 70 percent of China's technological innovation, 60 percent of GDP and 80 percent of urban employment. The report tracks SME equity fundraising on the BSE alongside Shanghai's STAR Market and Shenzhen's ChiNext.

China has continued to broaden capital-market channels for innovative companies. Shanghai's STAR Market supports companies in high-tech and strategic emerging sectors, while Shenzhen's ChiNext mainly serves growth-oriented innovative and entrepreneurial companies. Regulators have also expanded listing standards and introduced measures to make refinancing, equity incentives and mergers and acquisitions more flexible.

Within that broader system, the BSE focuses on innovative SMEs. It operates with the NEEQ in an integrated, tiered structure, creating a progression from NEEQ cultivation to a BSE listing for qualifying companies.

At the larger end of China's technology-financing landscape, 2026 has also brought major listings. Memory-chip maker CXMT Corporation raised about 66.6 billion yuan in gross proceeds in its Shanghai STAR Market offering, making it the largest-ever IPO on the board. Humanoid-robot maker Yushu Technology Co., Ltd., known as Unitree Robotics, raised about 6.1 billion yuan in gross proceeds in its August STAR Market offering.

Beyond the public markets, the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2026 counted 381 unicorns in China, the world's second-largest total and 38 more than a year earlier. Separately, China ranked first among countries and territories in the Nature Index 2026 Research Leaders, based on 2025 publication data from 178 selected high-quality publications.

For Paratera, that wider story comes back to computing power: matching demand with resources across a nationwide network. Five years after the exchange was announced, the task is different but the logic is familiar -- matching a growing group of smaller innovators with public-market capital.