Zhipu on investors' radar: target price jumped 72%, shares soared 37%
The artificial intelligence market in China is undergoing a tectonic shift, and shares of Zhipu, one of the country's leading AI startups, have become the main beneficiary of this process. Analysts at a major investment bank have revised their view of the company, raising the target price by nearly 72%, which triggered a powerful rally on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Quotations soared, extending a five-day winning streak — over this period, the shares gained more than 37%.
A Paradigm Shift: From Price Wars to Monetizing Intelligence
The key driver of the revision is a fundamental change in market logic. Until recently, the main threat to China's AI sector was considered to be fierce competition among numerous open models, which was expected to lead to the unification of offerings and a collapse in prices. Now that hypothesis is outdated. Instead of a race to the bottom, the industry is moving toward healthy commercialization, where the winner is not the cheapest but the smartest model. This means investors will have to completely reassess their valuations of the entire sector.
As part of the revision, the target price for Zhipu shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was raised from 990 to 1,700 Hong Kong dollars. The reasons are expanded access to computing power for training and launching models, as well as the successful completion of another funding round. The company, founded in 2019 and known for its GLM series of large language models, has already raised $4 billion this year through a secondary share offering in Hong Kong.
Caution on MiniMax and Overall Positivity
However, not all market players received equally optimistic assessments. For MiniMax, analysts maintained a "constructive" outlook but lowered the target price to 900 Hong Kong dollars, expecting the greatest growth in later stages rather than in the near term. Nevertheless, MiniMax shares rose 4.8% during the day. Alibaba also received a positive assessment, with experts highlighting opportunities in end-to-end AI, advantages in computing power, and growth in cloud business margins.
Against this backdrop, key indices are also showing confidence: the Hang Seng opened up 0.53%, while the Hang Seng Tech added 0.85%. The five-day rise in Zhipu shares is a clear signal that the market is already betting on a new paradigm where model intelligence becomes the main asset and a source of stable income.
Expert comment: The revision of Zhipu's assessments is not just a correction of figures but a sign of maturity across the entire Chinese AI market. Investors should closely watch companies that can not only create advanced models but also effectively monetize them in the real sector. This will be the main difference between future leaders and outsiders.