China’s artificial intelligence sector is experiencing rapid expansion, with several key players driving innovation. These companies are not only developing advanced AI models but also securing massive funding and competing on a global scale. This article explores the six leading firms shaping China’s AI landscape, their breakthroughs, and their impact on the industry.
China’s AI race is accelerating, fueled by state support, private investments, and cutting-edge research. These six firms stand at the forefront of the competition.
Zhipu AI: Pioneering Generative AI
Founded in 2019 at Tsinghua University, Zhipu AI is one of China’s earliest generative AI startups. The Beijing-based company focuses on foundational models that power applications like ChatGLM, a conversational chatbot, and Ying, an AI-driven video generator.
In August 2023, Zhipu launched GLM-4-Plus, claiming it performs on par with OpenAI’s GPT-4o. The model, trained on high-quality synthetic data, can process extensive text input. A few months later, Zhipu introduced GLM-4-Voice, an end-to-end speech model capable of real-time conversations in both Chinese and English, featuring human-like intonation and dialect adaptability.
Despite its advancements, Zhipu faced a major hurdle in early 2024 when the Biden administration added it to the U.S. restricted trade list, citing concerns over ties to China’s military. However, this didn’t stop its growth — Zhipu recently secured over $ 140 million in funding from major investors, including Alibaba and Tencent.
Moonshot AI: The Ambitious Contender
Moonshot AI emerged in 2023 from Tsinghua University, founded by AI researcher Yang Zhilin, an alumnus of both Tsinghua and Carnegie Mellon University. The company positions itself as a serious player in China’s AI race, focusing on cutting-edge research and large-scale AI model development.
While Moonshot AI remains relatively new compared to its competitors, it has already drawn significant interest from investors and researchers alike.
MiniMax: Transforming AI Chatbots
Founded in 2021 by AI researcher Yan Junjie, MiniMax is best known for Talkie, an AI chatbot that allows users to interact with various virtual personalities, including fictional and celebrity figures. Originally launched as Glow in 2022, the chatbot was later rebranded as Xingye in China and Talkie in global markets.
Despite its success, Talkie faced regulatory issues—Apple removed it from the U.S. App Store in December 2023, citing unspecified «technical reasons.»
Beyond chatbots, MiniMax has expanded into text-to-video AI, developing a model called Hailuo AI. This diversification has strengthened its position as a leading AI innovator. In early 2023, Alibaba led a $ 600 million funding round for MiniMax, pushing its valuation to $ 2.5 billion.
Baichuan Intelligence: Open-Source AI Leadership
Established in March 2023, Baichuan Intelligence brings together talent from Microsoft, Huawei, Baidu, and Tencent. The company focuses on open-source large language models (LLMs) and has released two major models:
- Baichuan-7B
- Baichuan-13B
These models support various applications, including general knowledge, mathematics, coding, translation, legal analysis, and medical research. They are commercially available within China, marking a shift toward homegrown AI infrastructure.
Baichuan recently secured a $ 687.6 million investment, with Alibaba, Tencent, and state-backed funds among the investors, further solidifying its position in China’s AI ecosystem.
StepFun: Advancing Multimodal AI
Founded in 2023 by Jiang Daxin, a former Microsoft executive, StepFun has quickly emerged as a key player in multimodal AI. The Shanghai-based company has developed 11 foundation models, covering text, audio, and visual AI.
Its flagship model, Step-2, boasts one trillion parameters, placing it among the largest AI models in the world. Step-2 has been benchmarked against major competitors, including OpenAI, Alibaba, and DeepSeek, ranking favorably on LiveBench.
State-owned Fortera Capital backed StepFun’s latest funding round, securing hundreds of millions of dollars to support further development.
01.AI: Kai-Fu Lee’s AI Vision
Founded in 2023 by Kai-Fu Lee, a veteran of Apple, Microsoft, and Google, 01. AI has already made waves with its open-source models:
- Yi-Lightning
- Yi-Large
Yi-Lightning is particularly notable for its efficient training approach. Unlike competitors requiring massive computational resources, it was trained using only 2,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs for one month, yet it performed comparably to xAI’s Grok 2.
Yi-Large, on the other hand, excels at human-like conversations in both English and Chinese, further strengthening 01. AI's standing in the industry.
China’s AI industry is rapidly evolving, with these six companies leading the charge. Each firm is pushing boundaries in generative AI, chatbots, multimodal AI, and open-source development, all while attracting major investments. As these companies continue to expand their capabilities, their influence on the global AI market is undeniable.
The rise of China’s AI giants signals a shift in the global AI race. As these firms advance, they are positioning themselves as serious contenders against Western tech leaders.
