tech
January 8, 2026
The first of China’s 'AI tigers' goes public as Zhipu climbs in Hong Kong debut
Shares of China-backed Zhipu made small gains on their Hong Kong debut, following a $558 million initial public offering.

TL;DR
- Zhipu, also known as Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC, is the first Chinese "AI tiger" to complete an initial public offering.
- The company raised $558 million in its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
- Zhipu's shares rose by as much as 15% above their offer price on their debut.
- The IPO values Zhipu at approximately HK$4.3 billion.
- Founded in 2019 by university researchers, Zhipu is a major large language model company.
- The firm is backed by Beijing and aims to rival companies like OpenAI.
- Zhipu has offices internationally and operates innovation centers in Southeast Asia.
- The company was placed on the US Commerce Department's Entity List, impacting its access to technology.
- Zhipu plans to use 70% of IPO proceeds for AI model research and development.
- Zhipu reported revenue of 312.4 million yuan in 2024.
- Rival startup MiniMax is expected to launch its own IPO soon.
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