OpenAI has raised concerns about Chinese artificial intelligence firm Zhipu AI, calling it a major player in China’s bid to dominate the global AI market. In a blog post published Wednesday (June 25), the company said Zhipu AI has made “notable progress” and is on the “front line” of Beijing’s push to expand its AI influence. Founded in 2019, Zhipu AI has been described by Chinese media as one of the country’s “AI tigers” — a group of high-growth large language model companies seen as key to China’s strategy to reduce reliance on US technology.

OpenAI highlights Zhipu AI’s Beijing links and overseas activity

According to OpenAI, Zhipu AI has received over $1.4 billion in backing from various state-linked sources and maintains close ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The company’s leadership “frequently engages with CCP officials, including Premier Li Qiang,” the blog post said.The ChatGPT-maker highlighted that Zhipu is also expanding globally, with offices in the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Middle East, and joint innovation centers in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. OpenAI warned that Zhipu’s efforts align with China’s “Digital Silk Road” strategy, which aims to embed Chinese AI systems and standards into emerging markets.“In practice, this means: forming an alliance that co-builds national LLMs with ASEAN and other Belt and Road capitals; opening joint innovation centers;embedding safety labs such as the new Dubai Content-Safety Lab (corroborated by CN sources); and, underwriting projects with Gulf capital (the Saudi Prosperity7 Aramco fund participated in a USD $400M round) and Huawei Ascend hardware, albeit not at Stargate-level scale,” the company highlighted. “The goal is to lock Chinese systems and standards into emerging markets before US or European rivals can, while showcasing a ‘responsible, transparent and audit-ready’ Chinese AI alternative,” OpenAI said.Zhipu AI has not responded to OpenAI’s latest remarks. However, company chairman Liu Debing said last week that Zhipu hopes to “contribute China’s AI power to the world.”Zhipu has also been linked to China’s military modernization efforts. This led to its inclusion on the US Commerce Department’s Entity List in January. The firm is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering and was last valued at around $2.78 billion.Meanwhile, OpenAI has been expanding its own presence. It recently secured a $200 million contract with the US Defense Department and announced an “OpenAI for Government” program aimed at US public sector use. It also plans to build an AI-focused facility in the UAE under the $500 billion Stargate Project, backed by Abu Dhabi’s MGX and Japan’s SoftBank.