OpenAI says a Chinese startup is gaining ground in the global AI race
Zhipu AI is a Chinese state-backed company making serious advances globally — and in direct competition with OpenAI
Photo illustration: Thomas Fuller (Getty)
OpenAI says a new Chinese competitor could dampen the ChatGPT maker's global ambitions.
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In a blog post Wednesday, OpenAI said that Zhipu AI, a billion-dollar startup backed by the Chinese government, has made “notable progress” in securing contracts with governments and state-owned firms in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East — many of the same goals that OpenAI is aiming for with its OpenAI For Countries initiative.
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Both companies are hoping to sell their own technology to countries aiming to build “sovereign AI.” OpenAI’s post says Zhipu AI’s “goal is to lock Chinese systems and standards into emerging markets before U.S. or European rivals can,” and that it is “positioning China’s Belt and Road Initiative as the springboard for a multi-pronged ‘Digital Silk Road’ strategy.”
Which, of course, is pretty much what OpenAI is trying to do on behalf of U.S. interests.
The term “sovereign AI” itself is contentious. A recent Fortune op-ed dismissed it as political branding, calling the practice “digital colonialism” resulting in a paradox. “The harder nations push for AI independence, the deeper their dependencies become” because of developing countries' reliance on chips, software and technology from geopolitical superpowers, wrote Nathan Benaich of Air Street Capital, citing OpenAI’s recent Stargate UAE project.
Chinese AI firm DeepSeek rattled the U.S. tech establishment earlier this year with open-source models that were as powerful as any market leader, developed at a fraction of the cost — although it faced allegations that the models were lifted directly from OpenAI.
ZhipuAI is unable to procure U.S. components, after being added to the U.S. export-control entity list in January.