Chinese companies have showcased the country’s AI technology at the conclusion of a major industry conference, amidst ongoing US efforts to rein in China’s AI advances.
Start-up Z.ai, formerly Zhipu, announced a new model that it said would cost less than competitor DeepSeek to deploy, while AI companies announced two industry alliances and Huawei showed its CloudMatrix 384 AI computing cluster that analysts said outperforms a similar Nvidia cluster on some tasks.
The announcements were timed with the closing of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Monday.
Open-source AI
Z.ai’s new GLM-4.5 model is open-source, continuing a trend popularised by DeepSeek when its low-cost, high-performance models gained worldwide attention in January.
It said the model could be run on only eight Nvidia H20 processors, referring to a chip tailored to comply with US export restrictions for China.
The start-up said it would charge 11 cents (8 pence) per million input tokens, compared to 14 cents for DeepSeek R1, and 28 cents per million output tokens, compared to $2.19 for the DeepSeek model.
For comparison, Kimi K2, another open-source model released by Alibaba-backed Moonshot earlier this month, charges 15 cents per 1 million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens.
Z.ai, which launched in 2019, has been added to the US Entity List trade blacklist, similar to Huawei and other Chinese tech firms.
At the show Huawei showcased its CloudMatrix 384 cluster, which incorporates 384 of its latest 910C chips and outperforms Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 cluster on some metrics, according to US research firm SemiAnalysis.
Huawei has been trying to develop domestically manufactured AI chips to help Chinese companies compensate for US export controls.
Industry groups
A new industry group called the Model-Chip Ecosystem Innovation Alliance aims to bring together developers of AI models and AI chip manufacturers, with participating chipmakers including Enflame, Huawei, Biren and Moore Threads.
AI model developer StepFun announced the alliance, according to local media reports.
The Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce said it was forming an AI Committee to promote integration of AI technology and industrial transformation.
Participants include StepFun, model developer MiniMax, chipmakers Metax and Iluvatar CoreX, as well as US-sanctioned facial recognition technology company SenseTime.
Tencent announced its open-source Hunyuan3D World Model 1.0, which it said allows users to create interactive 3D environments through text or image prompts, while Baidu announced next-generation “digital human” technology that can create virtual livestreamers.
Baidu said its technology includes a feature that can make a virtual clone of a person, including their voice and body language, using only 10 minutes of sample footage.
Smart glasses
Several companies announced AI-powered glasses, inspired by the success of Meta’s Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses, including Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses powered by its Qwen AI model.
Alibaba said its device is due to be released in China by the end of this year, and will include a navigation service and the ability to pay using Alipay by scanning QR codes with voice commands.
