The specifics:
The company's first share price was between $6 and $8 billion, a small amount compared to Anthropic's latest estimate of $350 billion or xAI's reported worth of $230 billion.
The leadership of Zhipu claims that the $3 monthly cost of its AI helper will compel American rivals to engage in the same pricing war that is already taking place in China.
Weeks prior to the IPO, Zhipu's GLM-4.7 coding model release outperformed both closed systems like Sonnet 4.5 and open competitors on benchmarks.
After raising $619 million, Chinese competitor MiniMax also goes public on Friday. Analysts predict that 2026 will be a breakthrough year for Chinese AI listings in Hong Kong.
The leadership of Zhipu claims that the $3 monthly cost of its AI helper will compel American rivals to engage in the same pricing war that is already taking place in China.
Weeks prior to the IPO, Zhipu's GLM-4.7 coding model release outperformed both closed systems like Sonnet 4.5 and open competitors on benchmarks.
After raising $619 million, Chinese competitor MiniMax also goes public on Friday. Analysts predict that 2026 will be a breakthrough year for Chinese AI listings in Hong Kong.
A number of Chinese AI startups are now going public with a similar strategy after DeepSeek shocked markets last year by approaching U.S. performance at a fraction of the cost. The chairman of Zhipu isn't afraid to use this tactic: flood the market with affordable, competent models until Western laboratories are forced to compete on price.