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.
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.
Z.ai rival MiniMax's shares climbed by around 3% in Hong Kong trading after reporting a 283% surge in revenue in the first half of the year versus a year ago.
