Zhipu released its first interim results as a public company on August 31: first-half 2026 revenue of ¥954 million, up 399.7% year over year; gross profit of ¥252 million, up 163.7%, with the cloud business's gross margin turning positive; net loss attributable to shareholders of ¥2.071 billion, down 12.1% from ¥2.351 billion a year earlier.
The gap with a year ago shows up mainly in revenue mix. Open-platform and API revenue's share of the total rose from 15.2% in the same period last year to 86.5%, up more than 27-fold year over year, making it the dominant line. MaaS platform users topped 7.4 million, up 144% from the start of the year, while paying daily active users grew 603%. By another metric the company disclosed, open-platform and API revenue generated per yuan of compute spend rose roughly 14-fold from a year earlier.
From selling projects to selling calls
For China's large-model companies, shifting revenue from custom projects to standardized APIs is a structural rewiring of the finances. Project-based margins get eaten by delivery headcount, and scaling means hiring more people; an API's marginal cost is compute and inference efficiency, which in theory thins out as call volume grows. Zhipu's cloud business gross margin turning positive is a signal that this path is starting to work.
Still, ¥252 million in gross profit against ¥954 million in revenue puts the rough gross margin at around 26%, still some distance from the software-company norm. Revenue nearly quadrupled while gross profit rose only 1.6-fold — the gap in between shows this round of growth is still being bought with compute, and the cost per call hasn't been squeezed down to where it needs to be.
The loss side moved the least. A ¥2.071 billion net loss against ¥954 million in revenue is still a lopsided ratio, and the 12.1% year-over-year narrowing lags far behind the 399.7% revenue growth. On an adjusted basis, the loss ratio narrowed 3.5-fold year over year, but closing that line to breakeven still depends on revenue continuing to climb.
A second interim report
The same week, MiniMax also filed its 2026 interim results. The company reports in US dollars: first-half revenue of $117 million, up 283.1% year over year; gross profit of $20.813 million, up 464.8%; and a loss for the period of $358 million, down 11%. The company said it has roughly 300 million users globally and more than 1 million enterprise and developer customers.
Reading the two reports side by side requires clearing a currency hurdle first. Zhipu's ¥954 million, converted at roughly 7-to-1, works out to about $130 million — the same order of magnitude as MiniMax's $117 million. Comparing “954 million” with “117 million” at face value would produce the opposite conclusion. The loss figures aren't directly comparable either: Zhipu discloses net loss attributable to shareholders, while MiniMax discloses loss for the period; the two aren't built the same way, which limits how much a side-by-side comparison can tell you.
What does line up is the trend. MiniMax's gross-profit growth (464.8%) outpaced its revenue growth (283.1%); Zhipu's gross-profit growth (163.7%) lagged its revenue growth (399.7%). The former means the cost per unit of revenue is falling; the latter means scale is still outrunning cost discipline. The two companies delivered two different qualities of growth in the same quarter.
The math isn't finished
What these two reports have in common is that, for the first time, they lay China's large-model commercialization out in public filings. Until now, outsiders could only work backward from funding rounds, benchmark scores, and API pricing; now there are full figures for revenue, gross profit, and losses.
The numbers point to a straightforward conclusion: call volume is genuinely rising, faster than many expected. But turning call volume into profit is a step neither company has finished. Zhipu's 7.4 million MaaS users and 603% growth in paying daily actives show the demand side is still climbing; the ¥2.071 billion loss shows the cost side is still weighing it down. What's worth watching over the next few quarters is whether gross margin can catch up to the slope of the revenue curve.
Sources: Zhipu HKEX interim results announcement, MiniMax interim results announcement, CocoLoop, Jiemian News, Yicai; Zhipu figures are in RMB, MiniMax in USD, and gross-margin/FX conversions are editorial estimates.