Zhipu AI Launches Hong Kong IPO With HK$3 Billion in Cornerstone Commitments, Poised to Be 2026’s Largest Opening IPO
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Chinese LLM developer Zhipu AI launched its Hong Kong IPO, aiming to raise ~US$555M and become the "world's first publicly listed foundation model company." It secured strong cornerstone investment of ~US$387M ahead of the listing.
Zhipu AI Co., Ltd. (“Zhipu”), a Beijing-based large language model developer, began its Hong Kong public offering on December 30, 2025, and is scheduled to list on January 8, 2026 under ticker 2513, positioning itself as a potential “world’s first publicly listed foundation model company.”
Zhipu plans to issue 37,419,500 H shares at an offer price of HK$116.20 (approx. US$15.01) per share, raising an estimated HK$4.3 billion (approx. US$555 million) and implying a market capitalization of over HK$51.1 billion (approx. US$6.6 billion). The IPO could become Hong Kong’s largest listing at the start of 2026.
The offering secured a strong lineup of cornerstone investors, including JSC International Investment Fund, Taikang Life Insurance, GF Fund Management, and Hillhouse High Yield, with total subscriptions of approximately HK$3 billion (approx. US$387 million).
Spun out from Tsinghua University, Zhipu is known for its heavy R&D investment and advanced model capabilities. R&D spending surged from RMB 84 million (approx. US$12.0 million) in 2022 to RMB 2.195 billion (approx. US$313.6 million) in 2024. Its recently open-sourced GLM-4.7 model ranked first among open-source and domestic models on Code Arena, and topped both categories in the AA Intelligence Index. The company also released its base agent model AutoGLM (Open-AutoGLM), drawing widespread developer attention.
Commercially, Zhipu follows a Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) strategy. Its API platform serves more than 2.7 million enterprise and application developers. According to Frost & Sullivan, Zhipu was China’s largest independent foundation model provider by revenue in 2024. Revenue grew from RMB 57 million (approx. US$8.14 million) in 2022 to RMB 312 million (approx. US$44.6 million) in 2024, representing a 130% CAGR. Revenue for the first half of 2025 reached RMB 190 million (approx. US$27.1 million), up 325% year-on-year, with gross margins consistently above 50%.
Source：IPOzaozhidao
