Chinese leading large model company Zhipu AI reported its 2025 financial performance with annual revenue exceeding 724 million yuan, marking a 132% increase year-over-year, making it the largest large model company in China by revenue. Its core MaaS (Model as a Service) API platform achieved an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of 1.7 billion yuan (~$250 million), a staggering 60x year-over-year growth. The platform's gross profit margin rose from ~4% to 18.9%, significantly boosting profitability.
Overall Gross Margin Reaches 41%
Zhipu's overall gross profit margin for 2025 stood at 41%, a leading level among Chinese AI startups. Despite rising costs in computing, data labeling and R&D, the company optimized inference architecture and improved model efficiency to lower unit costs. CFO stated that scale effects and high-margin MaaS platform drove margin improvement.
API Price Hike of 83% Fails to Dampen Demand
In early 2026, Zhipu raised its major API prices by 83%, but daily call volumes surprisingly increased rather than declined. This indicates strong market reliance on its LLM services and low price elasticity. Analysts note that enterprise AI adoption in China has shifted from trial to necessity, with deep penetration in code generation, intelligent customer service and text processing.
Zhipu Consolidates Its Lead in China's LLM Race
Amid fierce competition in the 'hundred-model war', Zhipu's MaaS API ARR of 1.7 billion yuan far outpaces peers. The company secured strategic investments from state-backed funds in Q1 2026, fueling R&D for next-gen AGI models. CEO emphasized long-term commitment to intelligence enhancement. Zhipu's AI capabilities also hold promise for the crypto sector, offering potential support for on-chain data analysis, risk management and automated trading strategies in Web3.