TECH

China’s Zhipu AI Jumps in Hong Kong Debut

Published: Jan. 8, 2026 12:35 p.m. GMT+8

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Zhipu AI opened 3% higher on its first day of trading on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Jan. 8. Photo: Zhipu AI

Shares of Zhipu AI surged in their Hong Kong trading debut on Thursday, valuing the Chinese generative artificial intelligence startup at approximately HK$55.5 billion ($7.1 billion) as investors piled into one of the country’s most prominent challengers to OpenAI.

Zhipu AI, officially Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. Ltd., opened 3.27% higher and overcame an initial dip below its offering price of HK$116.20 to trade up 8.43% at HK$126 per share as of Thursday morning. The listing comes as China’s large language model (LLM) sector turns to public markets to fund the immense capital requirements of the global AI arms race.

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Zhipu AI debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange, reaching a valuation of HK$55.5 billion ($7.1 billion) and raising HK$4.17 billion in its IPO.
Retail investors oversubscribed the offering by 1,159 times; 70% of IPO funds will be used for R&D of AI models through 2028.
The company reported a net loss of 2.36 billion yuan in H1 2025, mainly from surging R&D and computing costs.

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Who’s Who

Zhipu AI: Zhipu AI, also known as Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. Ltd., is a Chinese generative AI startup that recently debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Valued at $7.1 billion, it's considered a prominent challenger to OpenAI. Founded in 2019 and incubated at Tsinghua University, Zhipu AI has released models like GLM-4 and AutoGLM, and offers commercial API services.

Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. Ltd.: Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. Ltd., also known as Zhipu AI, is a Chinese generative AI startup incubated at Tsinghua University. It debuted strongly on the Hong Kong stock exchange, reaching a valuation of approximately $7.1 billion. The company, led by CEO Zhang Peng and Professor Tang Jie, develops general-purpose AI models, including the GLM-4 and GLM-4.5. It raised HK$4.17 billion in its IPO, with 70% earmarked for R&D.

Moonshot AI: Yang Zhilin, founder of Moonshot AI, believes private markets are more efficient for AI startups currently, having recently closed a Series C round over $500 million, resulting in a cash balance exceeding 10 billion yuan.

MiniMax: MiniMax is a Chinese generative AI peer to Zhipu AI. It experienced significant investor interest, with its offering oversubscribed 1,848 times, and is scheduled to list on the main board on Friday.

DeepSeek: DeepSeek is an open-source rival to Zhipu AI that achieved breakthrough success in early 2025, contributing to competitive pressure in the generative AI market. The article implies DeepSeek's open-source nature provided a significant challenge for companies like Zhipu AI, which subsequently adjusted their operations and iterated heavily on their models.

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What Happened When

2019：: Zhipu AI was founded and incubated at Tsinghua University.

2022：: Zhipu AI released its 130-billion parameter model to benchmark against ChatGPT.

August 2023：: Zhipu AI secured a domestic regulator license.

2024：: Zhipu AI expanded its product suite to include the GLM-4 foundation model and commercial API services.

Early 2025：: Zhipu AI faced headwinds following the breakout success of open-source rival DeepSeek.

By mid-2025：: Zhipu AI's workforce shrank from about 1,000 to about 800 employees.

After January 1, 2025：: Zhipu AI continued to iterate, launching updated models including GLM-4.5 and the multimodal agent model AutoGLM.

Between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2025：: Zhipu AI reported a net loss of 2.36 billion yuan on revenue of 191 million yuan. R&D costs nearly doubled year-on-year to 1.6 billion yuan; computing service fees accounted for 1.15 billion yuan.

April 2025：: Zhipu AI filed for pre-listing counselling with the Beijing regulatory bureau to list on Shanghai’s STAR Market.

By mid-December 2025：: Zhipu AI pivoted to Hong Kong for IPO after failing to receive feedback from the China Securities Regulatory Commission regarding its A-share proposal.

December 31, 2025：: Yang Zhilin, founder of rival Moonshot AI, issued an internal letter arguing private markets remain more efficient for AI startups.