Shares of Zhipu Surge After First Earnings Report Shows Revenue Doubling

Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence company Zhipu AI surged as much as 35% on Wednesday after the company reported strong revenue growth in its first earnings report since going public. The stock later pared gains but still closed nearly 32% higher for the day.

The Beijing-based company, formally known as Knowledge Atlas Technology, listed in Hong Kong in January after raising $558 million in its initial public offering. Zhipu is considered one of China’s leading “AI tiger” companies — a group of startups building large language models intended to compete with U.S. AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

In its earnings report, Zhipu said revenue rose about 132% to 724 million yuan in 2025 compared to the previous year, though the figure came slightly below analyst expectations. The company reported an adjusted net loss of 3.18 billion yuan, which widened from the previous year as research and development spending increased significantly.

Founded in 2019 by researchers from Tsinghua University, Zhipu recently released its GLM-5 model, which the company said matched U.S. competitors on several key performance benchmarks. The company has also been expanding into AI agent technology, a rapidly growing segment of the artificial intelligence market.

Zhipu said more than 4 million small and medium-sized enterprises and developers are now using its AI products across 218 countries and regions. The company also reported a surge in usage driven by the adoption of its open-source AI agent platform OpenClaw, which significantly increased token usage — a key metric that reflects demand for AI computing power.

During the earnings call, CEO Zhang Peng said the company is accelerating its use of domestic Chinese semiconductor chips to meet growing computing demand, aligning with Beijing’s broader push to build a self-sufficient domestic semiconductor industry. Zhipu’s access to advanced chips has been constrained by U.S. export restrictions, which have limited Chinese companies’ ability to purchase high-end AI chips.

The company was added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List last year over alleged links to China’s military, further complicating its access to American technology.

Zhipu’s performance is being closely watched as a key indicator of China’s artificial intelligence industry, particularly as competition between the U.S. and China intensifies in AI infrastructure, semiconductor technology, and large language model development.

Shares of Chinese AI company MiniMax, a rival that also listed in Hong Kong earlier this year, also rose about 16% in trading on Wednesday, reflecting broader investor enthusiasm for China’s AI sector following Zhipu’s earnings report.