CMB International has released a research report expressing a positive outlook for Z.AI (02513), citing its robust annualized recurring revenue (ARR) growth trajectory and promising prospects. The brokerage noted that the company's newly disclosed user acquisition scale and engagement metrics have further solidified its constructive stance on the stock.

Driven by stronger ARR growth, CMB International has raised its revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) forecast for 2025-2028 from 199% to 275%, and correspondingly increased the price target from HK$1,503.9 to HK$1,985, while maintaining a "Buy" rating. The firm believes that Z.AI's ability to strike an effective balance between model iteration speed, intelligence level, and per-task cost positions it well to sustain a position on the Pareto frontier of the large language model (LLM) industry, offering ample headroom for long-term monetization.

According to the report, Z.AI completed six GLM iterations within 11 months, with its intelligence index climbing from 32 to 60. The MaaS platform saw registered users surge 144% to 7.4 million, paid daily active users grow 603%, and token call volume increase over 40-fold year-to-date, while the average API selling price rose approximately 101%. As of August 2026, the company's open platform and API ARR reached US$1.6 billion, up from US$1.0 billion in early July, with management guiding to US$2.4 billion by year-end.

The deployment of a domestic 100,000-card chip cluster and the rebuilding of the inference stack have driven per-token costs down approximately 80% year-to-date, while the compute multiplier improved 14-fold year-on-year. The open platform's gross margin reached 24.6% in the first half of 2026. CMB International has revised its revenue CAGR forecast for 2025-2028 upward from 199% to 275%, and projects total revenue to reach RMB 38.1 billion by 2028.