Zhipu Shares Jump Over 30% After U.S. Restrictions Prompt Open‑Source AI Release

Shares in Knowledge Atlas Technology, the Hong Kong‑listed holding company of Zhipu, surged as much as 48% on Monday before easing slightly, remaining up roughly a third at about HK$1,461, CNBC reported.

The rally followed a Friday order from the U.S. administration directing Anthropic to block access to its flagship models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for all foreign nationals—including non‑citizen employees—citing national‑security concerns. Anthropic disabled the models for all users to comply with the broad restriction.

In response, Zhipu announced that it will release GLM‑5.2, its newest open‑source large model, later this week without any access limits. The company framed the move as a direct counter‑measure, stating, “Cutting‑edge intelligence should not belong to only a few, nor should it be withdrawn at any time. It should be open, available, extensible and built to serve every developer.”

Wall Street analysts adjusted their outlooks on Monday. JPMorgan maintained an overweight rating on Knowledge Atlas Technology and raised its price target to HK$1,400 from HK$950, while also lowering its view on MiniMax, which still posted a 7.4% gain. Bank of America initiated coverage on both stocks with buy recommendations, setting targets of HK$1,250 for Zhipu and HK$500 for MiniMax.

The shift benefits Chinese AI developers, whose open‑distribution strategies attract enterprise customers wary of the escalating costs of U.S. frontier models. Bank of America analysts argue that as American providers increase prices, Chinese alternatives are gaining traction in the “value‑for‑money” segment of the global AI market.

The Anthropic restrictions have also reignited debate over the AI talent war between the U.S. and China. Z‑Ben Advisors managing director Peter Alexander estimates that roughly 40% of U.S.‑based AI engineers are of Chinese origin, highlighting the broad impact of the new rules on researchers who helped build these systems. He warned that the policy could trigger a wave of “brain flight” that would benefit Chinese AI firms.

The dispute occurs against a larger backdrop: Anthropic sent senior technical staff to Washington over the weekend for talks, including co‑founder Tom Brown and public‑policy chief Sarah Heck meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross. Anthropic disputes the severity of the security finding underlying the export controls, arguing that the capabilities cited—demonstrated by an alleged jailbreak—are already available in other publicly deployed models, such as OpenAI’s GPT‑5.5.

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