New IPO Watch | On the Crest of the LLM Wave: As the “Top Player” Knowledge Atlas Launches HK IPO, What Future is the Market Betting On?

As the wave of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) sweeps the globe, leading players in China's large language model (LLM) sector are accelerating their entry into the capital markets. On December 30, 2025, Knowledge Atlas (Stock Code: 02513.HK), often referred to as a "Chinese ChatGPT" developer, officially launched its public offering, which will close on January 5, 2026, with an expected listing date of January 8, 2026. The offer price has been set at HK$116.20 per share, with a board lot of 100 shares, an entry cost of approximately HK$11,737.19, and a total fundraising amount of about HK$4.17 billion. Newtimespace observes that as one of the few domestic companies with full-stack, self-developed capabilities in LLMs, Knowledge Atlas is at the forefront in terms of technical prowess, open-source ecosystem, and commercialization efforts. However, it faces risks including intense market competition and being placed on the US "Entity List," making its post-listing growth path a key focus for market attention.

Core Highlights: A Triple Lead in Technology, Ecosystem, and Commercialization

1. Technology and Model Capabilities Rank in the Industry's First Tier
Knowledge Atlas's core advantage lies in its self-developed GLM (General Language Model) series. Its flagship model, GLM-4.5, has performed impressively in global authoritative benchmarks: it ranked third globally, first in China, and top among global open-source models in a comprehensive assessment of 12 standard tests in July 2025. In November of the same year, its upgraded version, GLM-4.6, ranked first globally on the CodeArena platform, specifically designed to evaluate coding capabilities. These achievements demonstrate the model's cutting-edge performance in reasoning, coding, and multimodal understanding, building a solid technological moat.

2. Open-Source Ecosystem and Developer Community Build Strong Influence
The company adheres to an open-source strategy. Its trillion-parameter model, GLM-130B, was one of China's early significant open-source LLMs. Following its release, the flagship GLM-4.5 model topped the global trending chart on Hugging Face within 48 hours and has consistently ranked among the top ten globally and top three in China in API call volume (token consumption) on the OpenRouter platform. This vast developer community not only provides technical feedback and brand loyalty but also serves as a potential conversion base for subsequent commercial products like its Model-as-a-Service (MaaS). As of June 30, 2025, its models have supported over 8,000 institutional clients and approximately 80 million devices.

According to a Frost & Sullivan report, based on 2024 revenue, Knowledge Atlas ranks first among China's independent general LLM developers and second among all LLM developers (including affiliated entities), with a market share of 6.6%.

Financial Perspective: Synchronized High Growth in Revenue and Gross Profit

Source: Prospectus

Offer Details, Cornerstone Investors, and Use of Proceeds: Betting on Long-Term R&D

1. Offer Overview
Knowledge Atlas plans a global offering of approximately 37.41 million shares, with the offer price set at HK$116.20 per share. Based on this, the IPO is expected to raise net proceeds of approximately HK$4.17 billion. The public offering commenced on December 30 and will close on January 5, 2026, with trading expected to commence officially on January 8. The entry cost for one board lot of 100 shares is approximately HK$11,737.19.

2. Cornerstone Investors
This IPO has attracted 11 cornerstone investors, including JSC International, Perseverance Asset Management, WT Asset Management, Taikang Life Insurance, and GF Fund Management, with aggregate subscriptions of approximately HK$2.984 billion, accounting for about 59.7% of the global offering shares. This demonstrates institutional investors' confidence in its long-term value.

3. Use of Proceeds
The company plans to allocate approximately 70% (about HK$2.921 billion) of the net proceeds to continuously enhance R&D capabilities in general AI large models. The remaining funds will be used to optimize the MaaS platform, develop the business partner network, and supplement working capital. This indicates that post-listing, the company will continue to adhere to its "technology-first" strategy, with profitability not being the primary short-term goal.

Risk Focus: Profitability Challenges Under Heavy Investment and External Pressures

1、Strategic High R&D Investment Leads to Sustained Losses: As a technology-driven company, the cost for Knowledge Atlas to maintain its leading position is high. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, its R&D expenses surged from RMB 84.4 million to RMB 2.195 billion (in 2024), with a cumulative total exceeding RMB 4.4 billion. Correspondingly, losses widened from RMB 143.7 million to RMB 2.958 billion (in 2024), with a loss of RMB 2.358 billion already recorded in the first half of 2025. Its revenue growth rate (3-year CAGR ~130%) is significantly lower than the expansion rate of its R&D expenses (CAGR >400%). Whether revenue can cover the massive R&D costs in the coming years and achieve a profitability inflection point is a core financial challenge.

2、Fierce Industry Competition: The LLM landscape is crowded with tech giants, startups, and academic institutions, making competition exceptionally intense. Although leading among independent developers, Knowledge Atlas still faces comprehensive competition from models affiliated with large internet companies, which often hold advantages in capital, data, computing power, and application scenarios.

3、Geopolitical and Supply Chain Risks: The company has been placed on the US "Entity List," which may impose long-term restrictions on its future access to high-end AI chips (GPUs), advanced process manufacturing, and certain underlying software—acting as a "Sword of Damocles." While the company states the current impact is limited, the long-term stability of its technology supply chain poses a significant challenge.

Conclusion

Knowledge Atlas's Hong Kong IPO offers investors a rare opportunity to participate directly in China's cutting-edge AGI wave. Its full-stack, self-developed technical capabilities, vibrant open-source ecosystem, and validated industry leadership constitute its most compelling investment narrative. Under the macro themes of domestic substitution and independent innovation, the company carries the market's expectations for China to birth a world-class AI platform.

However, Newtimespace believes investors must clearly recognize that this remains an early-stage, high-investment, high-growth story. The company's value lies in its long-term technological potential and market positioning, but the path to profitability is fraught with challenges due to massive R&D investment, compounded by external competition and supply chain risks. Investing in Knowledge Atlas is, in essence, a conviction investment in the long-term future of China's AGI. Investors must make a prudent trade-off between the surging technological prospects and the realistic financial pressures.

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