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

Shares of Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC, widely recognized as Zhipu, experienced a remarkable surge of up to 35% on Wednesday following the release of its inaugural earnings report, which showcased substantial revenue growth. The Beijing-based AI company saw its gains stabilize at approximately 30% during afternoon trading. Zhipu, which made its public debut in January through a $558 million initial public offering in Hong Kong, is celebrated as the first significant pure-play AI model company to go public in China and potentially worldwide. In its earnings announcement, the company reported a staggering 132% increase in revenue, reaching 724 million yuan in 2025 compared to the previous year. However, this figure fell short of analysts' average projection of 760 million yuan, as surveyed by Reuters. Despite the revenue growth, Zhipu reported a net adjusted loss of 3.18 billion yuan, a 29.1% increase from the previous year, attributed to rising research and development expenditures. Founded in 2019 by Tsinghua University researchers, Zhipu recently launched its latest GLM-5 model, claiming competitive performance metrics comparable to U.S. counterparts. Backed by strong government support, Zhipu is regarded as one of China's prominent 'AI tigers'—startups developing large language models to compete with major players like OpenAI and Anthropic. This positions Zhipu as a crucial indicator of the overall health of China's AI sector. During an earnings call, CEO Zhang Peng revealed that the company is intensifying its reliance on domestically produced Chinese chips to address a significant increase in computing demand since February. This strategy aligns with Beijing's initiative to bolster its domestic semiconductor industry. Zhang's remarks are particularly significant given that Zhipu's ability to train its AI models has been previously hampered by U.S. export restrictions, which limited access to advanced semiconductor technology. Zhipu was also placed on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List last January due to alleged connections with the Chinese military. On the same trading day, shares of MiniMax, a competing Chinese AI firm that also went public in Hong Kong, saw an increase of about 16%.