A Shanghai-based maker of sensors for cars has become the largest Chinese group to go public in the US since 2021, in a deal that exchange executives hope will ease almost two years of tensions during which such listings ground to a halt.Hesai Technology, which supplies laser-based sensors to carmakers and autonomous driving companies, on Wednesday raised $190mn from investors — more than it had originally planned — in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange that valued it at around $2.4bn.

Bob McCooey, Asia-Pacific chair at Nasdaq, said he was hopeful the deal would be a “seminal” event after a series of positive developments in recent months “cleared the dark clouds [that] hung over the US capital markets for Chinese companies”.

More than 200 Chinese companies worth a combined $1tn are listed on US exchanges, according to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a group created by Congress to examine the national security implications of trade and economic relations between the two countries.