China’s Z.ai revenue jumps 400% as total losses narrow on explosive cloud gains
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Minxiao Changin ShenzhenandBen Jiangin BeijingPublished: 7:43pm, 31 Aug 2026Updated: 8:49pm, 31 Aug 2026Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai on Monday reported a 400 per cent increase in first-half revenue, driven by explosive growth in its open platform and application programming interface business, which helped narrow total losses despite higher research and development spending.
Revenue for the six months ended June 30 rose to 953.89 million yuan (US$142 million). Full-year sales were expected to expand 514 per cent to 4.45 billion yuan, according to consensus estimates from analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Beyond its first-half results, Z.ai said that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) – a key metric that projects current monthly subscription income over a 12-month period – had reached US$1.6 billion by the end of August. For comparison, Yan Junjie, CEO of rival firm MiniMax, said last week that his firm’s ARR had risen to US$800 million in August.
Z.ai’s total loss for the six months ended June 30 narrowed 12.1 per cent to 2.07 billion yuan, while adjusted net loss increased 12.1 per cent to 1.96 billion yuan.
Research and development expenses rose 33.6 per cent to 2.13 billion yuan as Z.ai – known domestically as Zhipu AI – continued to invest aggressively in computing power and base model performance.
Shares of Hong Kong-listed Z.ai closed up 9.63 per cent at HK$1,195 on Monday ahead of the earnings release. The stock remains down about 60 per cent from its record high of HK$2,980 reached in June, when the company’s market capitalisation briefly approached HK$1 trillion (US$127.5 billion).
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