OpenAI’s Latest Chinese Competitor: It’s Zhipu AI, Not DeepSeek!

CNBC AI News // June 30 // In a recent post, OpenAI’s Global Affairs account highlighted the burgeoning advancements within China’s artificial intelligence sector, featuring a piece titled “Chinese Progress at the Front.” Of particular note was OpenAI’s acknowledgement of Zhipu AI, a burgeoning Chinese AI firm, recognizing its “significant progress” in the global AI race.

OpenAI identifies Zhipu AI, founded in just 2019, as a prominent emerging player in China’s large model landscape. The firm is seen as a vital force in China’s pursuit of an independent and self-reliant AI ecosystem, fostered through healthy competition and development.

OpenAI further elaborated on Zhipu AI’s impressive international footprint, noting its successful deployment of infrastructure and technical support across numerous countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya.

OpenAI’s internal analysts believe Zhipu AI’s “localized Chinese versions of OpenAI products” have already gained substantial traction in Western markets, effectively establishing a presence before more established Western AI offerings could fully penetrate these regions.

Some media outlets, in reporting on OpenAI’s blog post, have directly stated that Zhipu AI is presenting a clear challenge to OpenAI from China.

This attention comes even as Zhipu AI was placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List earlier this year. OpenAI’s decision to specifically call out Zhipu AI’s international expansion has been met with online commentary, with some deeming it an “unintentional advertisement for China’s AI capabilities.”

As one of the “AI Six Tigers” in China, Zhipu AI has developed its GLM series of models and built a comprehensive product matrix, including the AI assistant Zhipu ChatGLM, the code model CodeGeeX, and the multimodal model CogVLM. The company also commenced its IPO advisory process earlier this year.