Zhipu AI (rebranded internationally as Z.ai) is a Chinese artificial intelligence company founded in 2019 by Tsinghua University professors Tang Jie and Li Juanzi, spun out of Tsinghua's Knowledge Engineering Group (KEG). The company develops foundation models and large language models under the GLM (General Language Model) family, including ChatGLM (a conversational chatbot), CodeGeeX (coding assistant), and Ying (AI video generator). Headquartered in Beijing's Zhongguancun district at the Tsinghua University Science Park, Zhipu is widely regarded as one of China's 'Six AI Tigers' and was the first of that cohort to list publicly, debuting on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2026 under ticker 2513.HK. The company is also pursuing a parallel A-share listing on the Shanghai STAR Market. Major backers include Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Group, Meituan, Xiaomi, HongShan, Qiming Venture Partners, Prosperity7 Ventures (Saudi Aramco), and multiple Chinese state-backed investment funds.
Zhipu AI is publicly traded
IPO'd on January 8, 2026
This company is no longer available on our private secondary market. Shares can be traded publicly under 2513.HK.
Company data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Founded
2019
Employees
500–800
Total Funding
$1.56B
9 rounds
Last Private Valuation
$3B
July 3, 2025
Total raised $1.56B across 9 rounds
Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Last updated 06-25-2026
Latest Round
Type
Pre-IPO / Strategic
Date
May 31, 2024
Amount
$400M
Valuation
$3B
Lead Investors
| Date | Round | Amount Raised | Valuation | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 3, 2025 | Strategic (Shanghai) | $140M | — | Shanghai state-owned funds |
| March 19, 2025 | Strategic (Chengdu) | $41.5M | — | Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone |
| March 13, 2025 | Strategic (Zhuhai) | $69M | — | Zhuhai Huafa Group |
Zhang Peng
CEO
Tang Jie
Co-Founder & Chief Scientist
Li Juanzi
Co-Founder
Liu Debing
Chairman
Competitor list is illustrative and may be incomplete, stale, or erroneous.
MiniMax
Shanghai-based Chinese LLM developer and fellow 'Six AI Tigers' member, known for consumer apps like Talkie/Xingye; also pursued a Hong Kong IPO in 2026.
Moonshot AI
Beijing-based developer of Kimi, one of China's most popular AI chatbots known for long-context (200K+ characters) input.
Baichuan AI
Beijing-based LLM startup founded in March 2023 by Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan; releases open-source Baichuan models.
DeepSeek
Hangzhou-based Chinese AI lab known for highly efficient open-weight reasoning models (DeepSeek-R1, V3); a leading domestic competitor to Zhipu's GLM series.
01.AI
Chinese foundation-model company founded by Kai-Fu Lee; member of the 'Six AI Tigers' developing the Yi family of LLMs.
StepFun
Shanghai-based multimodal foundation-model startup and the sixth member of China's 'Six AI Tigers'.
Yes, Zhipu AI is publicly traded under the ticker symbol 2513.HK on the HKEX. The company went public in January 8, 2026.
Zhipu AI trades under the ticker symbol 2513.HK on the HKEX. It began trading in January 8, 2026.
Zhipu AI (2513.HK on the HKEX) shares can be purchased through any standard brokerage account — including Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and online platforms like Robinhood or E*TRADE. Search for the ticker 2513.HK to place an order.
Zhipu AI went public in January 8, 2026 via ipo, with an offering valuation of approximately $3B. Zhipu AI completed its Hong Kong IPO on January 8, 2026, becoming the first of China's 'Six AI Tigers' to list publicly. The company sold 37.42 million H-shares at HK$116.20 per share, raising approximately HK$4.35 billion (~US$558-560 million) for an IPO valuation of roughly US$6.57 billion. Shares closed up 13.1% at HK$131.50 on debut, valuing the company at about HK$57.89 billion (~US$7.4 billion). The retail tranche was oversubscribed more than 1,159x. Zhipu had pre-filed for an A-share STAR Market listing in April 2025 (originally tutored by CICC, later expanded to a joint effort with Guotai Junan and Haitong) and is pursuing a parallel A+H listing structure. Proceeds are earmarked primarily for R&D and product capacity, with the remainder for brand promotion, business development, and working capital.
Zhipu AI raised $1.56B across 9 disclosed funding rounds prior to its public listing.
Zhipu AI was co-founded by Tang Jie, and Li Juanzi in 2019.
Zhipu AI is headquartered in Beijing, China.
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