Z.ai H1 Revenue Jumps 400% to $142M But Misses $200M Target as China AI Price War Bites

Z.ai reported H1 2026 revenue of 953.89 million yuan (about $142M), up 400% year-on-year but well below the 1.35 billion yuan consensus estimate. Cloud-deployment revenue surged 2,736% while total losses narrowed 12.1%; R&D spending rose 33.6% to 2.13 billion yuan. Shares closed up 9.6% but remain roughly 60% below June's HK$2,980 peak, signaling the limits of China's low-cost model boom as a durable business.