Shares of MEITU (01357) surged more than 8% during the trading session. At the time of writing, the stock was up 6.3% to HK$4.2, with a trading turnover of HK$281 million.

The price movement follows recent news that the company's founder, Chairman, and CEO, Wu Xinhong, purchased 1.6 million company shares on the open market of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on July 3 at an average price of HK$4.023 per share. Including this transaction, Wu has now cumulatively bought 5.58 million shares of MEITU.

Wu Xinhong indicated that, in light of the sustained acceleration in product innovation at MEITU and its long-term growth potential, he does not rule out further share purchases at appropriate times.

During this year's MEITU Imaging Festival, the company officially launched the MEITU Visionary V6 large model and eight AI products based on its model engine.

Analysis suggests the company's imaging apps are undergoing Agent-oriented transformation, shifting their service logic from delivering functions to delivering outcomes. This transition, supported by an AI compute power pay-per-use business model, is seen as opening up long-term commercial growth avenues.

There is also market expectation that the company is well-positioned to capture the long-term potential of AI-generated content productivity tools.