Chinese AI firm Z.ai releases model using domestic semiconductors

BEIJING — Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai released a new model Wednesday that the company claims uses entirely homegrown semiconductors to operate.

Called GLM-5.3-Flash, the low-cost version of Z.ai's flagship model ranks 10th on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, ahead of DeepSeek V4 Pro Max.

Z.ai's Hong Kong-listed shares climbed more than 8% in Thursday trading.

The company claimed it used 100,000 China-made chips to handle all online requests to use GLM-5.3-Flash, including when it was released on Aug. 20 under the code name "Ox Alpha." The model ranked first by usage in the last week on the global OpenRouter platform.

CNBC was unable to independently verify Z.ai's chip claims. The company declined to share details on which companies' chips it was using. Running an AI model requires less computing power than training a model.

Nvidia has struggled to sell its chips to China due to restrictions from Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, Huawei and other Chinese companies have ramped up efforts to build alternatives.

Z.ai is likely using Huawei Ascend along with other chip suppliers, said Counterpoint Senior Research Analyst Ivan Lam. He noted more companies in China are working closely together for deeper collaboration across hardware and software.

"Chinese AI model developers have continued to allocate more resources and investment toward AI servers and computing infrastructure built on domestic chips," he said.

China has ramped up domestic semiconductor and AI capabilities in an effort to gain tech self-sufficiency in the wake of U.S. restrictions on sales of advanced chips to China. Leading U.S. AI models are also not officially available in China.