Tang Jie,CEO of Zhipu,a top AI startup in China, insists nation's not far behind U.S. in advanced AI race . This came up after exchange on social media with Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO,stirring fresh debate on AI competition.
On X recently,Musk speculated on when China might launch AI model to rival Anthropic's Fable 5, guessing first quarter next year . Tang Jie fired back,saying China's model would drop sooner. Musk pushed back, claiming even if Chinese models matched Fable 5 on paper,"true usefulness" of AI was another matter, stressing Anthropic's revenue-focused "useful intelligence".
Tang Jie argued focus should be on understanding true intelligence. This back-and-forth reignited talk about AI gap between U.S. and China, especially with recent U.S . export controls on Anthropic's models. These moves have fueled discussions on AI talent competition between two nations.
Zhipu,once known as Z.ai, recently rolled out its GLM-5.2 model . Performance metrics strong. Model rivals Anthropic’s Opus 4.7 and 4.8,released earlier,and beats OpenAI’s GPT-5.5. With 744 billion parameters, GLM-5.2 is second in front-end coding benchmarks at CodeArena,positioning Zhipu as third-ranked lab globally per Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (AAII).
Jefferies called GLM-5.2 a "milestone for Chinese AI," first Chinese model to crack global top three. Launch announcement stressed "cutting-edge intelligence should not belong to only a few", aiming for developer accessibility.
Musk-Tang exchange also rattled stock markets. Zhipu shares soared up to 42% intraday,pushing market cap over HK$1 trillion (about 196 trillion won). Since January listing,Zhipu's stock has jumped over 1,700%. A JPMorgan report forecasts over 534% revenue surge this year, eyeing profitability by 2028,reversing earlier loss predictions .
Despite no profits yet,Zhipu leads Hang Seng Tech Index with over 1,500% gains. Company's rise driven by China's push for AI self-reliance.
Meanwhile, Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, launched early June,hit roadblocks soon after. U.S. slapped export controls limiting foreign access,including Anthropic staff. Company pulled both models from global market.
