Zhipu leads rally in Chinese AI stocks, surging 30%, as a wave of new releases hits market

A significant surge was seen in Chinese artificial intelligence stocks on Thursday, driven by the unveiling of advanced models by various companies and renewed encouragement from top policymakers for wider adoption of AI technology. Zhipu AI, known as Knowledge Atlas Technology on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, experienced a remarkable 30% jump in its stock price following the launch of its latest product, the GLM-5. This open-source large-language model boasts improved coding abilities and is designed for long-running agent tasks. According to the company, the GLM-5 model is competitive with Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 in coding evaluations and outperforms Google's Gemini 3 Pro in some areas, although these claims have not been independently verified by CNBC. In addition, MiniMax saw an 11% increase in its shares after it introduced its M2.5 open-source model on its international platform. The company characterizes M2 as tailored for maximizing coding and agentic workflows, further enhancing its position in the market. The Shanghai STAR AI Industry Index grew by 1.7% before settling, reflecting the growing enthusiasm in the sector. This rally highlights the fierce competition among Chinese developers as they strive to keep pace with their U.S. counterparts amidst a wave of new model and agent launches. DeepSeek, which gained significant attention last year, also announced an upgrade to its flagship AI model, enhancing its support for a larger context window and incorporating more current knowledge, as reported by the South China Morning Post. Additionally, Ant Group unveiled its own open-source AI model, Ming-Flash-Omni 2.0, which is designed to generate speech, music, sound effects, and visuals. Chinese Premier Li Qiang emphasized the need for a coordinated effort to integrate AI across various sectors, aiming to fully harness the potential of this transformative technology.