Beijing-based Zhipu AI has secured 3 billion yuan ($412 million) in fresh funding. The investment comes as the company reports doubling its revenue in the past year and expanding its enterprise customer base.
Key Points:
- The funding follows multiple investment rounds in 2024, with the company's valuation reaching approximately $2.75 billion
- Zhipu's API revenue grew 30-fold year-over-year, while daily token consumption increased 150-fold, indicating strong market adoption
- The company's MaaS (Model-as-a-Service) platform has attracted 700,000 enterprise and developer users
- Investment came from both state-backed funds and strategic investors, with existing shareholder Legend Capital increasing its stake
The latest funding round adds to Zhipu's impressive roster of backers, which includes tech giants Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, along with venture capital firms Qiming Ventures and Legend Capital. This diverse mix of investors suggests broad confidence in the company's technology and market strategy.
Chris McKay
Zhipu AI, founded in 2019, has rapidly expanded its product portfolio to compete in China's increasingly crowded AI market. The company's flagship chatbot, ChatGLM, ranks fourth among Chinese chatbots with 6.4 million monthly active users, according to industry tracker aicpb.com. The service offers both free basic access and a 39 yuan monthly premium tier that includes features such as article summarization, marketing proposal generation, and multimedia content creation.
In October, Zhipu made a notable push into AI agents with AutoGLM, a smartphone-based AI assistant that can perform tasks across multiple apps through voice commands. This move aligns with industry forecasts from Deloitte, which predicts that 25% of companies using generative AI will explore AI agents by 2025, with adoption potentially reaching 50% by 2027.
The funding comes at a crucial time for China's AI sector, as companies race to develop advanced language models while navigating regulatory requirements and intense market competition. Despite a broader slowdown in China's venture capital market, AI continues to attract substantial investment, reflecting its strategic importance in the country's technology landscape.
For Zhipu AI, the challenge ahead lies in converting its technological capabilities and growing user base into sustainable revenue streams while competing with both domestic rivals and international players in the rapidly evolving AI market.