(Yicai) Jan. 8 -- Shares of Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock, also known as Zhipu AI, surged on their first day of trading in Hong Kong, with the Chinese startup becoming the world's first large language model developer to go public.

Zhipu AI [HKG: 2513] closed 12.4 percent higher at HKD130.60 (USD16.76) a share today, bringing its market capitalization to HKD57.5 billion (USD7.4 billion). 

The initial public offering was oversubscribed 1,159.5 times by Hong Kong investors and 15.3 times by international investors, grossing over HKD4.3 billion (USD552 million). 11 cornerstone investors collectively bought just under HKD3 billion (USD381.4 million) worth of shares.

Some 70 percent of the net proceeds from the IPO (after deducting listing expenses) will be invested in research and development of general-purpose artificial intelligence models, according to Zhipu AI's prospectus. Around 10 percent will be used to continuously optimize its Model-as-a-Service platform, including providing the latest foundation models, training and inference tools, and infrastructure construction.

"Enabling machines to think as humans has always been Zhipu AI's vision and aspiration," founder and Chief Scientist Tang Jie said in a letter to employees today. "Becoming the world's first listed company focused on LLMs reflects the market's recognition of its technological and commercial value, allowing it to make the impossible possible."

Zhipu AI will soon launch GLM-5, its latest LLM, Tang said, adding that through further scaling and a host of brand-new technological improvements, the upgraded version of the model will likely empower AI to help people accomplish more practical tasks.

The core business of Zhipu AI, which originated from the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory of Tsinghua University's computer science and technology department, where Tang is a professor, covers the R&D of artificial general intelligence foundation models and the operations of its MaaS platform.

It focuses on building a new generation of cognitive AI models and providing end-to-end services and solutions for institutional clients, developers, and individual users. It also commits to advancing the development and commercial application of AGI technologies.

Zhipu AI has yet to stop its losses from widening due to surging R&D investment, with its net loss reaching CNY2.4 billion (USD327.8 million) in the first half of last year, while its operating revenue surged 325 percent to CNY190.9 million (USD26.5 million), its prospectus showed. Its loss was about CNY3 billion (USD411.2 million) in 2024, while the annual compound growth rate of its income stood at 130 percent from 2022 to that year.

In addition, Zhipu AI became the first of the so-called "six AI tigers" in China to go public, with MiniMax to start trading in Hong Kong tomorrow. The other four are Moonshot AI, 01.AI, Baichuan Intelligence, and Stepfun.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev