Investing.com-- China’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup Zhipu has enlisted China International Capital Corp (CICC) (HK: 3908 ) to lead its initial public offering (IPO), potentially as soon as this year, aiming to be among the first prominent ChatGPT competitors to go public.

The six-year-old company, backed by Alibaba (NYSE: BABA ) Group (HK: 9988 ) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK: 0700 ), has already started preparations for its debut, with an application for listing possible by October, according to media reports citing IPO filings.

Zhipu, which has raised significant attention following the success of AI startup DeepSeek, has rolled out several low-cost AI services, positioning itself as a major challenger to major players like DeepSeek and OpenAI.It raised 1 billion yuan ($140 million) in March, led by government-backed firms, highlighting Beijing’s growing focus on AI development.

Despite challenges, including a recent U.S. trade blacklist, Zhipu continues to advance its AI models, claiming its AutoGLM outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4o.