A recent listing boom among Chinese large language model (LLM) developers indicates the industry's transformation from technological exploration to commercial application, according to experts.
Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. Ltd., a Chinese artificial intelligence firm known as Zhipu, began trading in Hong Kong on Thursday, followed by the listing of another AI startup, MiniMax, on Friday.
Both listings have garnered significant market attention.
Experts say Hong Kong is an ideal listing venue for large language model developers, which spend heavily on research and development and are still refining their business models, because the city's stock exchange has relatively flexible revenue and profitability requirements.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong stock market's global reach, they add, will enable the AI upstarts to connect with international investors.
China's six leading LLM companies -- including Zhipu and MiniMax -- have taken different paths in technology and commercialization.
Zhipu focuses on enterprise-level and industry applications, centered on an artificial general intelligence foundation model, while MiniMax relies on multimodal models and targets the consumer market with AI-native products.
Meanwhile, Moonshot AI and Stepfun continue to update their model technologies and applications. Baichuan AI and 01.AI are focusing on medical and enterprise commercialization, respectively.
Industry insiders say this wave of IPOs by Chinese large language model developers may mark the sector's shift from pure research and development toward the parallel advancement of technology and commercialization, as business models become clearer.
The shift will provide a basis for future financing and valuations of LLM companies.
From a longer-term perspective, the AI sector is still undergoing rapid growth.
According to a report by market research firm Frost and Sullivan, China's LLM market reached 5.3 billion yuan (about 758.90 million U.S. dollars) in 2024 and is estimated to grow to 101.1 billion yuan by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 63.5 percent.
Chinese LLM developers' listing boom signals shift to commercial application
