Shares of China AI 'tiger' Zhipu surge 35% after revenue doubles in first earnings report

In this articleShares of Chinese artificial intelligence company Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC, better known as Zhipu, surged as much as 35% on Wednesday, after posting strong revenue growth in its first earnings report. The Beijing-based company later pared gains to end the session 31.94% higher. Listed in Hong Kong in January following a $558 million initial public offering, Zhipu was the first major pure-play AI model company in China, and arguably the world, to go public. Zhipu said in its earnings report released Tuesday that its revenue rose about 132% to 724 million yuan in 2025 from the previous year, though that figure missed the mean analyst estimate of 760 million yuan, polled by Reuters.The firm reported a net adjusted loss of 3.18 billion yuan, up 29.1% from the previous year, as research and development spending increased. Founded in 2019 by researchers from Tsinghua University, Zhipu recently released its latest GLM-5 model, which it said ⁠matched U.S. rivals on several key performance metrics. It has also been expanding its AI agent offerings. The company claimed that over 4 million small and medium sized enterprises and developers have collaborated with its products, which are covered in 218 countries and regions worldwide.It also noted a recent nationwide frenzy to adopt the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, which has pushed token usage to new levels. Tokens are the basic units of text processed by AI models, with their volume reflecting computing demand and costs.Zhipu, a beneficiary of Beijing's AI push, said it would ride on that demand and push the performance of its AI products to their limits.The company is considered one of China's so-called "AI tigers" — startups building large language models to rival the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic — making it a strong barometer for China's overall AI space. In an earnings call, Zhipu AI CEO Zhang Peng reportedly said that ​the company was accelerating its use of domestic Chinese chips to meet a ‌significant rise in computing demand since February, aligning with Beijing's push to develop its domestic semiconductor industry.The CEO's comments were notable as the firm's ability to train its AI models has previously been constrained by U.S. export restrictions, limiting its access to advanced semiconductor technology and expertise.Zhipu was also placed on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List in January last year over alleged links to China's military.Shares of MiniMax, a Chinese AI rival of Zhipu that also listed in Hong Kong in January, were up about 16% in trading on Wednesday. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inboxGet this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.© 2026 Versant Media, LLC.

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