Z.ai, earlier known as Ziphu AI and the developer behind the GLM family of large language models, has debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. With this move, the company is being described by investors as the world’s first publicly listed large language model company.
Trading under the ticker 02513.HK, Z.ai priced its shares at HK$116.20 and opened at HK$120.00. The listing values the company at around HK$52.83 billion, or $6.8 billion. According to early investor Qiming Venture Partners, the initial public offering raised about $558 million.
Founded in 2019, Z.ai focuses on building open-weight large language models that users can customise for specific use cases. The company says its models match or outperform leading US open-source and proprietary models. It also competes closely with Chinese players such as DeepSeek AI and Alibaba Group’s Qwen series.
Qiming Venture Partners said, “Z.ai has grown into China’s largest independent large language model developer.” It added that as of September 30, 2025, Z.ai’s models were deployed across more than 12,000 enterprise customers, over 80 million end-user devices, and supported more than 45 million developers worldwide.
For CEO Zhang Peng, the public listing signals more than business growth. “Going public means we must shoulder even greater social responsibility and industry mission,” he said. He added that the company will continue to focus on “fully independent, controllable full stack large model technology,” while strengthening its reasoning, coding and multimodal capabilities.
Z.ai is listed under Hong Kong’s Chapter 18C framework, which supports technology-focused companies. The firm said it is prioritising long-term research and development, with around 70% of the IPO proceeds planned for model R&D. This focus continues even as the company reported strong revenue growth alongside significant losses, largely due to heavy investments in building its core AI foundation.
The listing marks a major milestone for Z.ai as it looks to scale its technology and presence in the global AI landscape.
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