Chinese artificial intelligence company Zhipu AI made a strong debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, raising $558 million in one of the city’s first major technology listings of 2026, as investor enthusiasm for AI stocks continued to build across Asian markets.
Shares of Knowledge Atlas Technology, known as Zhipu AI, rose 3.3 per cent on their first day of trading after opening at HK$120. The Beijing-based company sold around 37.4 million shares at HK$116.20 each, raising HK$4.34 billion. The offering represented 20 per cent of its issued share capital and was oversubscribed by more than 1,159 times, underscoring strong demand from investors.
The listing comes amid a broader rally in Hong Kong and mainland Chinese equities, driven largely by technology and artificial intelligence companies. China’s benchmark CSI 300 index has climbed to its highest level since early 2022, after rising more than 20 per cent in 2025, reflecting renewed optimism around the country’s domestic tech sector.
Founded in 2019 by two graduates of Tsinghua University, Zhipu is regarded as one of China’s most prominent AI start-ups and a direct competitor to US-based OpenAI through its Z.ai large language model. The company counts Alibaba, Tencent and several state-owned enterprises among its investors, positioning it at the centre of China’s push to develop homegrown artificial intelligence capabilities.
Zhipu’s rise has not been without geopolitical complications. The company and some of its affiliates were added to the US Commerce Department’s export control entity list in January last year over alleged military links. The designation effectively prevents Zhipu from accessing US technology, including advanced semiconductors. In its prospectus, the company said it is unable to purchase AI chips as a result of the restrictions but argued that its operations have not been materially affected because it sources computing power from third-party cloud service providers within China.
Financially, Zhipu remains firmly in investment mode. Research and development spending rose to 1.6 billion yuan in the first half of 2025, nearly double the level a year earlier. Revenue during the same period reached 191 million yuan, while losses widened to 2.4 billion yuan, up from 1.2 billion yuan in the first half of 2024. The company said it plans to allocate about 70 per cent of the net proceeds from its Hong Kong listing to further research and development.
Most of Zhipu’s income currently comes from deploying private and localised large language models for corporate clients, as well as from providing application programming interfaces and token-based services through its Model-as-a-Service platform. The platform allows companies and developers to customise applications using pre-trained large models and development tools.
Although the majority of its revenue is generated in China, Zhipu is increasingly focused on overseas expansion. International markets accounted for nearly 10 per cent of revenue in the first half of 2025. The company said it is working with the Malaysian government to build a national sovereign AI platform based on its foundation models, and plans to replicate similar projects across Southeast Asia in partnership with governments, universities and local technology ecosystems.
Zhipu’s listing is part of a broader wave of AI-related flotations in Hong Kong. Fellow Chinese AI unicorn MiniMax is scheduled to list on Friday, while Shanghai-based Illuvatar CoreX Semiconductor, an AI chip designer, jumped 32 per cent on its debut on Thursday. Together, the listings point to Hong Kong’s growing role as a capital-raising hub for Chinese technology firms navigating an increasingly divided global AI market.
