Ubox, a Chinese vending machine maker backed by Ant Group, hopes to raise as much as $500 million through a Hong Kong IPO, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Valued at around $1 billion, Ubox could go public as early as this year. The Beijing-based company makes and operates vending machines that incorporate technologies such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence. The company has over 100,000 machines in more than 300 cities across China and overseas. [Bloomberg]