Zhipu AI stock soars 35% post doubling revenue in debut earnings

Shares of the Chinese AI firm Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC, commonly called Zhipu, climbed as high as 35% on Wednesday following a strong revenue boost in its inaugural earnings report.

The company based in Beijing moderated its gains but still held around a 30% increase in afternoon trading.

It debuted on the Hong Kong stock market in January with a $558 million IPO, establishing Zhipu as the premier standalone AI model firm in China and arguably worldwide to go public.

According to Zhipu's earnings report released on Tuesday, the company saw its revenue climb approximately 132% to CNY 724 million in 2025 from the year before, even though this figure fell short of analysts' average prediction of 760 million yuan, as surveyed by Reuters.

The company recorded a net adjusted loss of 3.18 billion yuan, an increase of 29.1% from the previous year, due to heightened research and development expenses.

Established in 2019 by Tsinghua University researchers, Zhipu has recently introduced its new GLM-5 model, claiming it aligns with US competitors on numerous key performance indicators.

With robust support from Beijing, Zhipu is viewed as one of China's "AI tigers" — startups crafting extensive language models to compete with entities like OpenAI and Anthropic — making it a strong indicator for China's expansive AI sector.

During an earnings call, Zhipu AI CEO Zhang Peng reportedly stated the company was speeding up the use of domestically-produced Chinese chips to adapt to a notable increase in computing needs since February, in line with Beijing’s initiative to enhance its local semiconductor industry.

The CEO's remarks were significant because the firm’s capacity to train its AI models had been previously limited by US export controls, which reduced its access to advanced semiconductor technologies and knowledge.

Additionally, Zhipu was placed on the US Commerce Department's Entity List in January the prior year due to supposed connections with China's military.

Shares of MiniMax, another Chinese AI competitor to Zhipu that also listed in Hong Kong in January, rose roughly 16% in trading on Wednesday.