Zhipu AI Raises Another 6.7 Trillion Won... China Accelerates AI 'Money War'

[Financial News] Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) companies are accelerating fundraising to secure the massive computing infrastructure and talent needed to compete with U.S. firms.
According to foreign media reports on the 13th, Zhipu AI (Z.ai) announced in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange the previous day that it had raised a total of $5 billion (approximately 6.7 trillion won). The funds came from an allocation of new shares worth about $2 billion (approximately 2.7 trillion won) and the issuance of convertible bonds worth about $3 billion (approximately 4 trillion won).
This was a large-scale fundraising round just two months after the company secured about $4 billion (approximately 5.3 trillion won) through a share sale in July.
The company said it plans to allocate about 60% of the funds raised to research and development (R&D) for next-generation models and a “fully autonomous learning” system.
This includes building computing infrastructure for training and inference of large-scale AI models, ensuring compatibility with Chinese-made semiconductors, and improving inference efficiency.
Of the remaining funds, 15% will be used for business expansion, while the rest will go toward optimizing the capital structure and increasing working capital.
Founded in 2019 by researchers from Tsinghua University, Zhipu AI is one of China’s leading generative AI startups. It was listed on the Hong Kong stock market in January.
From February through August this year, it released a series of its proprietary large language models (LLMs), upgrading its major models roughly every two months.
Zhipu AI’s major fundraising comes as Chinese AI companies aggressively raise capital to secure the computing infrastructure and talent needed to compete with U.S. firms.
Meanwhile, according to reports by Bloomberg and the Global Times, an English-language newspaper affiliated with the People’s Daily, Chinese LLM company MiniMax is preparing to list on the SSE STAR Market, a technology-focused market operated by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, after going public in Hong Kong earlier this year.
Moonshot AI, the developer of the AI model Kimi K3, raised $3.5 billion (approximately 4.7 trillion won) in July, exceeding its initial target. It is now seeking additional investment based on a valuation of $50 billion (approximately 67.3 trillion won). The company is also reportedly pursuing a plan to raise $3 billion to $5 billion (approximately 4 trillion to 6.7 trillion won) through a Hong Kong listing by the end of the year.
DeepSeek raised approximately $7.4 billion (about 10 trillion won) in June, giving it a post-money valuation of more than $50 billion (approximately 67.3 trillion won).
It is currently seeking additional investment at a valuation of approximately $75 billion (about 100.9 trillion won). The company is reportedly planning to appoint CITIC Securities as the lead underwriter and begin the process of listing on the SSE STAR Market by the end of the year.

[email protected] International Affairs Specialist Lee Seok-woo Reporter