Based in 2019, Zhipu (HKG: 2513) was the primary of China’s six “AI tigers” to go public. Upon its itemizing in January 2026, its inventory popped 16 p.c above its supply worth of HK$116.20 (US$15) earlier than closing at HK$131.5.
Zhipu has posted a seismic rally in extra of 250 p.c since then, resulting in recent hypothesis over how far the inventory can climb in 2026, at the same time as geopolitical tensions are carrying far-reaching penalties for international markets.
The current flare-up of battle in Iran has sparked a pullback for a lot of shares and shares throughout totally different sectors, with Hong Kong’s Hold Seng index posting a 1.4 p.c decline to 25,408.46.
Nonetheless, China’s status for resilience within the face of worldwide tendencies might assist to create a stronger tailwind for Zhipu at a time when Wall Avenue’s synthetic intelligence leaders are being compelled to deal with a brand new wave of uncertainty surrounding traders.
The AI-heavy Nasdaq index has tumbled greater than 7 p.c from its 2026 highs in late January, with shares tumbling greater than 2.5 p.c over the primary week of March alone.
With Zhipu’s prospectus stipulating that the corporate intends to make use of 70 p.c of its IPO proceeds to concentrate on the R&D of its general-purpose massive language fashions, power within the Hold Seng might see the inventory outpace its U.S. friends by way of progress this yr. And the launch of the agency’s broadly anticipated GLM-5 mannequin in February could possibly be a watershed second for the inventory.
Zhipu’s GLM-5 delivers enhanced coding capabilities and supplies customers with the flexibility to carry out long-running agentic duties. GLM-5 can immediately compete with Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 in coding benchmark exams and surpasses Google’s Gemini 3 Professional in sure benchmarks. Critically, the mannequin was developed utilizing domestically manufactured chips, together with Huawei’s Ascend chip, underlining China’s current successes in constructing home chip self-sufficiency.
This self-sufficiency helps to develop the pricing energy of Zhipu’s releases. In response to OpenRouter, on the week of GLM-5’s launch, the mannequin was obtainable at round $0.80 per million enter tokens and $2.56 per million output tokens – round six instances cheaper than rivals like Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6.
With extra main U.S. companies, comparable to Airbnb, opting to make use of low-cost Chinese language fashions like Qwen, we’re seeing the disruptive pricing constructions utilized by the likes of Zhipu win over extra international customers, notably with GLM-5’s open-source MIT License to sweeten the deal.
Regardless of their rising power and enticing pricing energy, a few of China’s AI tigers have drawn derision from their U.S. counterparts. Anthropic accused three AI labs of illegally extracting capabilities from its Claude mannequin to advance their very own synthetic intelligence fashions. Whereas Zhipu hasn’t been recognized as a perpetrator, Anthropic alleged that three different Chinese language companies – DeepSeek, Minimax, and Moonshot AI – created over 24,000 fraudulent accounts and skilled their fashions utilizing greater than 16 million exchanges with Claude as a “distillation” tactic.
Though the accusations might hurt the credibility of Chinese language AI fashions, undermining the long-term outlook for Zhipu, current market actions counsel that China’s AI shares are well-positioned to capitalize on market situations to out-grow their U.S. friends over the foreseeable future.
Zhipu hasn’t been alone in launching new AI fashions in China. Minimax additionally launched M2.5, a mannequin that’s reportedly aggressive with the likes of Claude 3 Opus and GPT-5. These launches helped to generate sweeping features all through China’s AI sector amid a rising wave of constructive sentiment.
The direct impression of Zhipu’s newest mannequin launch prompted a 20 p.c soar within the worth of the inventory, emulating the extent of exponential progress that unfold all through Wall Avenue in the course of the early levels of the AI growth within the West.
Latest market jitters have precipitated extra Wall Avenue traders to query whether or not the USA is within the midst of an AI bubble, however analysts seem to retain a cautiously optimistic tone for the yr forward.
“As AI’s capabilities skyrocketed, so too did the share costs of its largest firms,” urged a current Wealthify thought piece on the continued synthetic intelligence growth. “…Though bubble-related questions could linger, our outlook for 2026 is one in all cautious optimism. As AI’s progress story continues, the main target will increase past main chipmakers to firms utilizing it to enhance effectivity and develop new merchandise.”
With a market capitalization of round HK$256 billion (US$33 billion), Zhipu has an extended strategy to go earlier than it attracts degree with the likes of Wall Avenue’s AI leaders, however this extra modest valuation might present larger resilience within the face of worldwide market disruptions. The ever-evolving AI panorama in China coupled with its enticing open-source frameworks and low adoption prices might all contribute to a big aggressive benefit over worldwide rivals.
At a time when value-driven market propositions could outperform opponents, Zhipu’s launch of its GLM-5 mannequin might hardly have been higher timed to prosper amid wider disruption.
