Z.ai Plans About USD5 Billion Placement and Convertible Bond, Shares Fall Over 10%

On September 14, 2026, Z. ai announced a new fundraising plan to raise about USD5 billion in total through a new share placement and a convertible bond issue. The company's shares fell more than 10% that day on the news. It is the second large-scale fundraising by the Beijing-based artificial intelligence company within two months. The company said the proceeds will support the development of next-generation artificial intelligence models, including research and development, training and inference infrastructure, and commercialization.

The placement involves up to 21.97 million new shares at HKD714 per share, raising gross proceeds of about HKD15.68 billion (about USD2 billion). The placement price represents a 10% discount to the company's closing price of HKD793 last Friday. In addition, Z. ai plans to issue RMB20.14 billion (about USD3 billion) of zero-coupon convertible bonds due in 2027, with an initial conversion price of HKD892.50 per share, a 12.5% premium to last Friday's closing price.

This round comes about two months after the previous one. In July 2026, Z. ai raised about USD4 billion through a share placement. In August 2026, the company's shares rose after it released a new artificial intelligence model, which the company said runs entirely on China-made chips and uses 100,000 domestically produced chips to handle online requests for the model. On September 14, shares of its Chinese competitor MiniMax also fell, by about 5%.