Z.ai shares surge 8% after launching GLM-5.3-Flash AI model on Chinese chips

Z.ai shares surge 8% after releasing new AI model running only on Chinese chips

* Z.ai's shares rose after the company launched a new AI model that it claimed runs only on Chinese chips. * It's the latest indication of China's efforts to ramp up homegrown computing capability. * Rival MiniMax, which reported a nearly 300% surge in first-half revenue versus a year earlier, saw shares gain about 3%. In this article * 2513-HK * 100-HK * ZLAB Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT The Zhipu or Z.ai logo is pictured on a smartphone on Aug. 14, 2026. Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images BEIJING -- Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai released a new model Wednesday that the company claims uses entirely homegrown semiconductors to operate. Called GLM-5.3-Flash, the low-cost version of Z.ai's flagship model ranks 10th on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, ahead of DeepSeek V4 Pro Max. Z.ai's Hong Kong-listed shares climbed more than 8% in Thursday trading. The company claimed it used 100,000 China-made chips to handle all online requests to use GLM-5.3-Flash, including when it was released on Aug. 20 under the code name "Ox Alpha." The model ranked first by usage in the last week on the global OpenRouter platform. CNBC was unable to independently verify Z.ai's chip claims. The company declined to share details on which companies' chips it was using. Running an AI model requires less computing power than training a model. Nvidia has struggled to sell its chips to China due to restrictions from Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, Huawei and other Chinese companies have ramped up efforts to build alternatives. China has ramped up domestic semiconductor and AI capabilities in an effort to gain tech self-sufficiency in the wake of U.S. restrictions on sales of advanced chips to China. Leading U.S. AI models are also not officially available in China. Z.ai rival MiniMax's shares climbed by around 3% in Hong Kong trading after reporting a 283% surge in revenue in the first half of the year versus a year ago. MiniMax reported adjusted net loss more than doubled during that time to $293 million. The company's flagship M3 model ranks 18th on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. Z.ai is scheduled to report results for the first six months of the year on Monday. The two AI companies both listed in Hong Kong in January. While Z.ai shares have skyrocketed by more than 800% since the IPO, MiniMax shares have only climbed by over 80%. -- CNBC's Jenny Lee contributed to this report Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Z.ai stock surges after launching GLM-5.3-Flash on Chinese chips

Z.ai released a new AI model Wednesday built to run on Chinese chips, sending its Hong Kong-listed stock up more than 12% on Thursday. The model, called GLM-5.3-Flash, is a lower-cost version of Z.ai's flagship offering. The company said it used 100,000 Chinese-made chips to handle all online requests, including during a one-week preview period when the model circulated under the code name "Ox Alpha." Neither claim could be confirmed independently, and Z.ai would not say which chipmakers supplied the hardware, according to CNBC.

Zhipu AI shares jump after confirming it developed popular AI model Ox Alpha By Investing.com

Investing.com-- Shares of Z.AI (Zhipu AI) (HK:2513) surged on Thursday after the Chinese artificial intelligence company reportedly confirmed it developed the mysterious Ox Alpha model, adding to investor optimism over the country's ability to produce competitive AI systems. Zhipu, also known as Z.ai, told Bloomberg that Ox Alpha is a new iteration of its GLM series, ending speculation over the model's origins. Get real-time updates on market-moving news with InvestingPro -- at 55% off now Hong Kong-listed Zhipu shares rose 9.7% to HK$1,130.0 by 01:43 ET (05:43 GMT). The company plans to release the model's weights, allowing developers to build applications and services on top of it, Bloomberg reported. Ox Alpha appeared anonymously on AI platform OpenRouter on Aug. 20 and quickly climbed to the top of its usage rankings, attracting attention for its performance in coding, reasoning and agentic tasks. The model supports text, image and video inputs and has a context window of about 1 million tokens, according to recent reports. Zhipu's confirmation adds to a string of developments highlighting the rapid progress of Chinese AI developers, which are increasingly challenging established U.S. models with lower-cost and open-weight systems.

Why is ZAI stock surging today? By Investing.com

Investing.com -- ZAI Co Ltd stock surged 9.2% to HK$1,125 on Thursday after the company's high-profile unveiling of GLM-5.3-Flash, the first natively multimodal model in its GLM-5 series. The model, which had been circulating anonymously under the codename "Ox Alpha" since August 20, was officially confirmed and open-sourced by the company on August 26, with MIT-licensed weights uploaded to Hugging Face the same day. GLM-5.3-Flash is a 320-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model with a 1-million-token context window supporting text, image, and video input. Its aggressive pricing -- set at roughly one-tenth of the flagship GLM-5.3 API rate, with a limited-time promotional discount cutting that further -- positions it as one of the most cost-competitive frontier-grade models available, drawing immediate attention from developers who had already been stress-testing it under its stealth identity. The model had already gained popularity after its anonymous launch as Ox Alpha onto OpenRouter earlier in August. The model was seen outperforming or matching several advanced AI models-- including those from OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepSeek, which in turn drew public notice. The company-specific catalyst was amplified by a favorable macro backdrop for AI equities, following blowout earnings and guidance from Nvidia. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.