China's Zhipu AI Plans to Raise $4.0 Billion as Tech Spending Accelerates

By P.R. Venkat

Chinese artificial-intelligence company Knowledge Atlas Technology plans to raise US$4.0 billion through a private placement of shares as AI companies ramp up spending on computing infrastructure and large-language-model development.

The Beijing-based company, which also operates under the name Zhipu AI, said Thursday that it would offer 19.78 million shares at 1,588 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to US$202.57 each.

The placement price is at a 12.99% discount to the stock's Wednesday closing price of HK$1,825.

Chinese AI companies have been raising billions of dollars to compete with global players such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google as businesses race to leverage generative AI to automate tasks and boost productivity.

The company is also competing with domestic rivals, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax, in China's rapidly expanding market for large language models.

Last month, DeepSeek raised more than US$7.4 billion in its first funding round to support business expansion. That deal valued the Chinese firm at more than $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

"The continued advancement in model capabilities and the large-scale commercialization of AI applications have placed higher demands on the company's capital strength and funding reserves," Knowledge Atlas Technology said.

Proceeds from the private placement will be used for research & development, cloud computing services, business expansion and potential mergers and acquisitions.

The company expects to fully deploy the proceeds by the end of next year.

CICC is acting as the placing agent for the transaction.

Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 08, 2026 21:12 ET (01:12 GMT)