Zhipu AI (Z.ai) - StartupWiki | AI Startup Research Directory

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Zhipu AI (Z.ai) — Startup ProfileThe Tsinghua-spun GLM lab — China's first listed 'AI Tiger' and most valuable public AI pure playHQ: Beijing, China | Founded: 2019 | Employees: 1,000+ (2026) | Stage: Public (HKEX, January 2026) | Website: https://www.z.aiAboutZhipu AI traces its roots to 2019 and the Knowledge Engineering Group (KEG) at Tsinghua University, led by Professor Tang Jie — making it the most academically pedigreed of China's 'AI Tigers.' The company, with Zhang Peng as CEO, built GLM (General Language Model), China's first open-source LLM lineage: GLM-130B (2022) was among the first serious open Chinese LLMs, and the GLM-4 / GLM-5 / GLM-5.2 series kept Zhipu at the frontier alongside DeepSeek and Moonshot.\n\nThe company rebranded as Z.ai in 2025, emphasizing international ambition: open-weights GLM models are widely adopted globally (GLM-4.5 and GLM-5 ranked among the best open models of their generations), and the Z.ai app and API serve consumers, developers, and enterprises — with especially strong traction in Chinese enterprise Key Metrics

Market Cap: ~$62B (Aug 2026); peaked >$128B

IPO Valuation: ~$6.6B (Jan 2026)

IPO Raise: ~$558M (HKEX)

Pre-IPO Funding: ~$1.5B

H1 2026 Revenue: ~$142M (up ~400% YoY)

Flagship: GLM model family

Funding Rounds

Round: Undisclosed (2023-01-01) — Undisclosed (state-linked and tech investors)

Round: Undisclosed (2024-03-01) — Undisclosed

Round: ~$558M (HK$4.35B) (2026-01-08) — Public market

Key People

Zhang Peng

Tang Jie

Key Competitors

DeepSeek —

Moonshot AI —

MiniMax —

ByteDance (Doubao) —

Timeline Highlights

2026-08: H1 2026 Results: ~$142M Revenue (up ~400% YoY)

2026-06-22: Market Cap Tops HK$1 Trillion

2026-01-08: HKEX IPO at ~$6.6B

2025: Rebrand to Z.ai

2023: ~$2.8B Valuation