Chinese AI start-up Z.ai, formerly known as Zhipu AI, has made its GLM models compatible with Huawei Technologies’ processors, adding momentum to China’s efforts to build up its own technology supply chain, according to the South China Morning Post.
The Beijing-based company said its models now work with Huawei’s Ascend chips, used in AI servers, and Kirin processors, which power smartphones and laptops.
“The tie-up marks a major breakthrough in cloud-device collaboration between home-grown large [language] models and computational architecture, highlighting the deeper integration of a domestic AI ecosystem,” Z.ai said.
The move comes shortly after Huawei announced it would open-source its Compute Architecture for Neural Networks (CANN) – the software toolkit for its Ascend processors. Opening the code lets developers build, adapt, and scale applications for domestic chips without relying on foreign platforms.
CANN competes with Nvidia’s proprietary CUDA toolkit, long used by Chinese AI developers who depend on the US company’s GPUs in many data centres. Working with Z.ai helps Huawei push wider use of its own processors in AI projects.
Last month, Huawei’s Ascend division became a founding member of the Model-Chips Ecosystem Innovation Alliance, alongside Chinese AI companies like StepFun, Infinegence AI, SiliconFlow, MetaX, Biren Technology, Enflame, Iluvatar Corex, Cambricon Technologies, and Moore Threads.
Z.ai said it will use CANN to fine-tune its GLM models on Huawei’s Ascend-powered cloud, showing the open-source toolkit in action.
In June, OpenAI described Zhipu – before its rebranding – as making “notable progress” in delivering AI infrastructure to governments and state-owned firms in non-Western markets. Backed by more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in funding, Z.ai filed pre-IPO documents in April, with plans to go public as early as 2026.
China’s response to GPT-5
OpenAI’s latest flagship model, GPT-5, debuted last week with claims of being “smarter, faster, and more useful,” offering improved abilities in coding, maths, writing, health, and visual perception. It also includes a “thinking” function that switches between standard and deep reasoning modes depending on the task.
“It’s like a PhD-level expert in anything, any area,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In China, where OpenAI services like ChatGPT are unavailable, experts were unconcerned about falling behind.
“GPT-5 is not significantly ahead of Chinese models, so it won’t put substantial pressure on Chinese researchers and developers,” said Zhang Linfeng, assistant professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He added the model “doesn’t come with revolutionary breakthroughs; it lacks memorable characteristics.”
Zhang noted that the “thinking” feature is already in some Chinese systems, including Alibaba’s AI products. Still, he credited OpenAI with reducing hallucinations – incorrect AI outputs – and improving coding and general intelligence.
Despite the muted reaction, interest was high. A GPT-5 discussion on Zhihu drew more than 3.2 million views, with some users praising the upgrades. GPT-5 is now the default model on ChatGPT for both free and paid users, and Microsoft is adding it to products like GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code.
AI talent in high demand
Competition for AI experts in China is also heating up where Alibaba’s Tongyi Lab, creator of the Qwen open-source models, has lost senior staff to rivals.
Yan Zhijie, who joined Alibaba in 2015 and led Tongyi’s speech lab, left in February. He joined JD.com’s Explore Academy but later moved to Tencent, leaving soon after an internal restructuring. His role was filled by Li Xiangang, co-founder of 01.AI.
Bo Liefeng, former head of Tongyi’s applied vision division, has also moved to Tencent’s Hunyuan AI team. Tencent and Alibaba did not comment.
Alibaba says its Qwen models have been downloaded over 400 million times worldwide, leading to the creation of 140,000 derivative models.
The flow of talent mirrors trends in the US, where firms like Meta have hired away AI experts from Google, OpenAI, and Apple. In China, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have all launched fresh recruitment drives, many aimed at AI research roles.
ByteDance’s “Top Seed Talent Programme” lists 65 AI-related openings, while Alibaba’s “Star Top Talent” campaign is targeting researchers in foundational models, infrastructure, and AI applications. Tencent recently opened internal applications for roles tied to its Yuanbao chatbot, Hunyuan model, and WeChat e-commerce.
As China pushes to build its AI ecosystem with home-grown chips and models, the fight for top talent is becoming as important as the technology itself.