Meituan’s AI Narrative: A Profit of 17 Billion from Zhipu, Acquiring Half of the Bodily Intelligence Market

Meituan holds shares in Zhipu AI valued at approximately 17 billion Hong Kong dollars, positioning it as one of the most profitable giants in the AI sector. While AI is typically a costly endeavor, Meituan’s profitable investments in AI have established it as one of the few companies making significant gains in this field.

In its 2025 financial report, Meituan disclosed a fair value change income of 1.49 billion yuan, attributed to the rising valuations of several AI and robotics companies in which it has invested. In the first quarter, Meituan’s fair value change income is expected to reach a historical high. Zhipu, which experienced a substantial stock price increase after its initial public offering, counts Meituan among its early investors. According to the prospectus, Meituan owns 4.27% of Zhipu’s equity. Following its IPO, Zhipu’s stock price continued to rise, with a market capitalization of around 300 billion Hong Kong dollars by the end of the first quarter, compared to its last pre-IPO valuation of 24.4 billion, indicating a floating profit of 12 billion Hong Kong dollars from Meituan’s investment in Zhipu alone.

In addition to investment gains, Meituan has frequently launched AI products over the past six months, increasingly narrating its AI story.

1. Frequent AI Product Releases: Are Tech Guys Late to the Game?

On April 14, at the Wuzhen Health Conference, Meituan unveiled its AI product “Xiao Tuan Health Manager” focused on family health management, along with a paid membership service called “Health Card.” Many observers noted similarities between this product and Alibaba’s health product “Afu,” marking Meituan’s first foray into AI in the health sector. In fact, over the past two to three months, Meituan has rolled out several AI products. In March, its “Lightyear Beyond” team began public testing of the “Tabbit AI Browser,” which can automatically open web pages, extract information, fill forms, and integrate data across platforms. This was Meituan’s first pure internet tool product in years. Additionally, earlier this year, Meituan launched the AI search product “Ask Xiao Tuan,” allowing consumers to filter products and stores using AI, positioning itself as an AI assistant for consumer transactions.

Earlier, in September 2025, Meituan tested its first native AI application, the “Xiao Mei” app, which serves as a local life secretary, enabling users to select restaurants and place takeout orders with a single command. These are just the front-end products; Meituan also has the LongCat large model family, which includes the LongCat-Flash-Omni model for full-modal coverage, the LongCat-Image model for high-quality text-to-image generation and dialogue-based image editing, and the LongCat-Video-Avatar model aimed at realistic digital personas. Clearly, Meituan is proactively integrating AI into its business. Since the onset of the AI competition in 2020, the company has rarely intertwined its operations with AI.

Despite its low profile, some in the capital markets exhibit a “strange confidence” in Meituan. They believe that compared to other leading AI enterprises managed by “liberal arts” teams, Meituan’s management team with a background in science and engineering may have more long-term plans and clearer development pathways, as they are seen as “focused on work rather than expression.” Meituan and its founder Wang Xing have been investing in AI and robotics for some time. Currently, in the popular AI products market, both Zhipu AI and “The Dark Side of the Moon” have received early investments from Meituan. Meituan invested in Zhipu AI during its B+ round when Zhipu’s valuation once reached 430 billion Hong Kong dollars. Meanwhile, Meituan’s market valuation has recently dropped to an undervalued below 500 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, Meituan has extensive investments in domestic embodied intelligence, including companies like Yushu Technology and Flexiv Robotics, among others. Some of these companies are already seeking or have submitted listings. The AI and robotics enterprises that Meituan has invested in are expected to significantly boost its fair value change income in the first quarter.

2. Strategic Defense or Offense?

While Meituan has a broad layout in AI and robotics, its stock price has not seen an increase. In stark contrast, Alibaba’s stock price surged from over 70 Hong Kong dollars per share at the start of 2025 to nearly 190 Hong Kong dollars, resulting in a market capitalization of over 3 trillion Hong Kong dollars, with half of that growth driven by its AI strategy. If not for the impact of local life and e-commerce sectors, Alibaba might have achieved even higher valuations.

Meituan’s local life business has faced challenges from Alibaba and JD.com, leading to a significant drop in stock prices. In March, Meituan’s market capitalization was around 410 billion, and its stock price fell to as low as 73.6 Hong Kong dollars per share, nearly halving since early 2025 and coming close to its two-year low. At this point, Meituan began to emphasize its AI products more, possibly to mitigate the impact of AI on its business. In March, Didi launched an AI ride-hailing service, and Doubao integrated product features this year. Earlier, Alibaba’s Qianwen had already been integrated into its Hema and Flash Purchase services. Currently, AI has not yet significantly impacted product selection, but it poses a potential threat to Meituan’s review business. AI could influence consumer choices, and if startups, ByteDance, or Alibaba utilize AI to penetrate Meituan’s rating system—such as by using AI to compile merchant reviews and allowing consumers to filter businesses with a simple command—this could leave Meituan in a reactive position. From this perspective, AI represents a threat to Meituan, a company with a vast and complex service structure.

3. Can AI Become Meituan’s Capital Market Narrative?

Can Meituan leverage AI like Alibaba and ByteDance to enhance its market value and valuation? This largely depends on two factors. First, can it produce a phenomenally successful product? Meituan has made numerous AI moves, but they lack a cohesive system. Its AI strategy does not feature an entry-level product as robust as those from ByteDance or Alibaba, nor does it have a clear product matrix. Currently, in the AI landscape, the three primary areas are conversational AI, video generation, and code, all of which Meituan is involved in. However, after five years of competition, the landscape has begun to stabilize, making it challenging for Meituan to catch up.

Second, does it have business models that can directly enhance revenue? For instance, the competition between Alibaba and ByteDance in AI is driven by the MaaS (Mobility as a Service) sector, which currently generates direct revenue. In contrast, Meituan’s AI initiatives mainly focus on improving internal efficiency, making it difficult to showcase tangible AI results in its financial reports. Nevertheless, one of Meituan’s long-term advantages in AI could be as a provider of embodied intelligence services. Besides investing in leading AI model companies, Meituan has also acquired a significant share of the domestic embodied intelligence market. The future application scenarios for robotics extend beyond manufacturing to services, including delivery robots, autonomous delivery vehicles, drone delivery, home service robots, and cooking robots, all of which relate to Meituan.

If Meituan can transform its AI narrative into a robotics story, turning its delivery personnel challenges into a tale of “machines replacing humans,” it may find itself well-positioned in the capital market.