--- title: Z.ai nears $1bn in sales, and gives its models away description: Z.ai (formerly Zhipu), the Chinese AI startup behind the GLM models, is on track to become the first independent Chinese AI firm with approximately $1bn in... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/z-ai-nears-1bn-in-sales-and-gives-its-models-away-vztvir1ep twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Z.ai nears $1bn in sales, and gives its models away | daily.dev og:description: Z.ai (formerly Zhipu), the Chinese AI startup behind the GLM models, is on track to become the first independent Chinese AI firm with approximately $1bn in... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/z-ai-nears-1bn-in-sales-and-gives-its-models-away-vztvir1ep og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/vZTViR1ep.png og:image:alt: Z.ai nears $1bn in sales, and gives its models away og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Z.ai nears $1bn in sales, and gives its models away **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Z.ai (formerly Zhipu), the Chinese AI startup behind the GLM models, is on track to become the first independent Chinese AI firm with approximately $1bn in annual sales, according to Bloomberg. The company's 2025 revenue was ~$100m (724m yuan), up 132% year-over-year, with JPMorgan projecting 4.6bn yuan in 2026 and profitability by 2028. Z.ai's strategy combines open-sourcing its best models (including GLM-5.2) with monetizing through enterprise on-premises deployments, cloud services, and API access — the latter growing sixtyfold in annualized recurring revenue. Caveats include the $1bn figure being a forward projection, the company still being lossmaking, heavy reliance on state-owned enterprise buyers, and a highly competitive Chinese AI market. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Zhipu share sale: China's AI star raises billions](https://daily.dev/posts/zhipu-share-sale-china-s-ai-star-raises-billions-lo6oftdth) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/z-ai-nears-1bn-in-sales-and-gives-its-models-away-vztvir1ep) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Z.ai nears $1bn in sales, and gives its models away","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/z-ai-nears-1bn-in-sales-and-gives-its-models-away-vztvir1ep","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/z-ai-nears-1bn-in-sales-and-gives-its-models-away-vztvir1ep"},"datePublished":"2026-07-17T08:25:14.837Z","dateModified":"2026-07-17T08:25:38.470Z","description":"Z.ai (formerly Zhipu), the Chinese AI startup behind the GLM models, is on track to become the first independent Chinese AI firm with approximately $1bn in...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/91a6bb663a3aca8981a2757bc25e94fd?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/91a6bb663a3aca8981a2757bc25e94fd?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/z-ai-nears-1bn-in-sales-and-gives-its-models-away-vztvir1ep","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,llm","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Z.ai nears $1bn in sales, and gives its models away"}]} ```