Morning Star | Zhipu AI, a Pioneer and Leader in China's AGI, Successfully Lists on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited | Bilingual

Swipe Left for the English Version

On January 8, 2026, Beijing time, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Zhipu AI, a pioneer and leader in artificial general intelligence (AGI) in China, successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "world's first listed large language model company." Zhipu AI (02513.HK) priced its IPO at HK$116.20 per share, opened at HK$120.00 per share, and reached a market capitalization of HK$52.83 billion.

Qiming Venture Partners co-led Zhipu AI's Series B1 financing round in early 2022 — nearly a full year before ChatGPT's release ignited the global large model wave. It was this capital injection that enabled Zhipu AI to overcome the R&D challenges and complete its first 100-billion-parameter large model, GLM. Qiming continued to back the company in its subsequent B2 and B4 rounds. Under Chapter 18C of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing regime, Qiming Venture Partners is an experienced independent investor in Zhipu AI.

Zhipu AI President Shaolan Wang (left), Qiming Venture Partners Managing Partner Alex Zhou (center), Qiming Venture Partners Executive Director Qi Hu (right)

Founded in 2019 as a spin-off from Tsinghua University technology transfer, Zhipu AI operates with the vision of "making machines think like humans" and has remained singularly focused on AGI R&D. Since its inception, the company has successively launched China's first 10-billion-parameter model, its first open-source 100-billion-parameter model, its first conversational model, its first multimodal model, and the world's first device-control AI agent — building one of the most advanced and comprehensive model portfolios and AI agent product suites globally.

Zhipu AI's GLM architecture has achieved a breakthrough in full domesticization, supporting over 40 domestic chip models and becoming one of the most universally compatible model systems in the industry. Its latest flagship model, GLM-4.7, has delivered best-in-class performance among open-source models across multiple mainstream public benchmarks. In CodeArena, an authoritative coding evaluation system with one million users participating in blind tests worldwide, GLM-4.7 ranked first among open-source models and first among domestic models, surpassing GPT-5.2. Meanwhile, on the highly authoritative AA AI Index, the model also claimed top honors among open-source models and domestic models. Its GLM Coding Plan has attracted 150,000 users globally and become a mainstream programming model choice for Chinese developers.

Zhipu AI has now grown into China's largest independent large model vendor. The GLM series of models are deployed across public governance, industrial manufacturing, energy and power, finance, internet, telecommunications, consumer electronics, education, and other sectors. As of September 30, 2025, Zhipu AI's models had empowered 12,000 enterprise customers worldwide, over 80 million end-user devices, and more than 45 million developers — making it the independent general-purpose large model vendor enabling the most end-user devices in China.

**Zhipu AI CEO Peng Zhang stated: "**Listing in Hong Kong marks a milestone moment for Zhipu AI. From commercializing technology transfer out of Tsinghua's labs to growing into a publicly listed company, we have never lost sight of our original aspiration of 'making machines think like humans.' Going public means we must shoulder even greater social responsibility and industry mission. Going forward, Zhipu AI will continue to deepen its commitment to fully independent, controllable full-stack large model technology, relentlessly push the boundaries of AGI capabilities, and continuously enhance the reasoning, coding, and multimodal capabilities of the GLM model series. We are dedicated to building a more open and thriving AI ecosystem, empowering thousands of industries through technology democratization, and making general artificial intelligence a true productive force driving the advancement of human civilization."

Alex Zhou, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, said: "The Zhipu AI team combines deep conviction in its technical roadmap with an exceptional ability to consistently translate frontier research into commercial value — this dual character of 'technology faith plus industrial execution' gives us confidence that they will navigate the AI wave with steadiness and emerge as a category leader. Zhipu AI's successful listing is not only a critical validation of China's path in foundational AI innovation, but also sends a clear signal to the entire technology investment field: the market will ultimately recognize and reward teams that persist in frontier exploration and deep foundational technological breakthroughs. We look forward to Zhipu AI using this listing as a new starting point to continue leading innovation breakthroughs and industrial applications in large model technology, creating even greater value for the AI ecosystem."

---

启明观点 | 启明创投周志峰：2025年会是AI应用全面落地的大年

启明星 | 认知智能领跑者智谱AI完成数亿元B轮融资，持续打造高性能千亿级普惠大模型

启明荣誉 | 5位启明创投投资人荣登2025年福布斯中国创投人100榜单

Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. The firm currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since its establishment, Qiming has focused on investing in outstanding early and growth-stage companies in Technology and Healthcare.

To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative companies, of which more than 210 have listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means. Over 80 portfolio companies have become recognized unicorns or super-unicorns.

Many of Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies have grown into the most influential companies in their respective fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE:ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), Hesai Technology (NASDAQ:HSAI, 02525.HK), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ:WRD, 00800.HK), HyperStrong (688411.SH), Insta360 (688775.SH), Unisound (09678.HK), Biren Technology (06082.HK), Zhipu AI (02513.HK), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ:SDGR), MicroPort EP MedTech (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), Amoy Diagnostics (300685.SZ), SinoCellTech (688520.SH), Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), Harbinger Health, Yuanxin Technology, MediLink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, StepFun, and others.