Zhipu Surges 30% as Chinese AI Stocks Rally on New Model Releases

Hong Kong - Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence firms rallied on Thursday after a wave of new model launches and renewed policy support boosted investor sentiment.

Hong Kong-listed Zhipu AI, trading as Knowledge Atlas Technology, jumped 30% after unveiling GLM-5, its latest open-source large language model. The company said the model features improved coding performance and enhanced long-duration task capabilities.

Zhipu stated that GLM-5 performs close to Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 in certain coding benchmarks and outperforms Google’s Gemini 3 Pro in selected tests. Those claims could not be independently verified.

Other AI-related stocks also advanced. MiniMax rose 11% in Hong Kong after launching its M2.5 open-source model aimed at coding and agent-based workflows.

The broader Shanghai STAR AI Industry Index gained 1.7% during the session before trimming some of its earlier gains.

The rally comes as Chinese developers accelerate efforts to compete with U.S. technology firms in generative AI. The sector has seen a rapid rollout of upgraded models and AI agents in recent weeks.

DeepSeek updated its flagship model this week, expanding its context window and incorporating more current data, according to local media reports.

Financial technology group Ant Group also introduced Ming-Flash-Omni 2.0, described as a multimodal open-source model capable of generating speech, music, sound effects and visual content.

Adding to market momentum, Chinese Premier Li Qiang called for broader implementation of artificial intelligence across multiple sectors to unlock the technology’s economic potential.

Investors appear to be responding to both the pace of product development and signals of continued policy backing, as China’s AI sector intensifies its push to narrow the gap with global competitors.