Chinese AI companies push to compete with US rivals

Chinese artificial intelligence companies are expanding models, chatbots and AI tools as they try to compete with leading US firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic, despite US export restrictions on advanced computing hardware.

China's older technology companies remain central to the sector. Baidu has recruited prominent AI researchers and built Ernie, one of China's first chatbots, while its business remains closely tied to online search and marketing. Alibaba is known for its open-source Qwen models, which can be customized and are used by programmers around the world. Tencent, based in Shenzhen, has increased investment in AI after founder Pony Ma compared the company's earlier AI work to a "leaky" ship and said he hoped it could move faster. Tencent is testing an AI agent inside WeChat, its messaging app used by more than a billion people.

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is shifting more focus to AI as geopolitical pressure grows around its overseas social media business. Its Doubao chatbot has more than 300 million monthly active users, making it the most popular chatbot of its kind in China. ByteDance has introduced a paid subscription service and released Seedance 2.5, the latest version of its AI video generator, in June. The model's ability to create cinematic clips has raised concerns about copyright infringement and the effect of AI on creative jobs.

DeepSeek, which began in 2023 as a side project of a data-driven hedge fund, drew global attention in January 2025 with a low-cost, high-performance chatbot. Its open-source approach helped accelerate the spread of Chinese AI models. The company released its latest V4 model in April and has reportedly completed a funding round valuing it at more than $50 billion.

Several startups known as China's "AI tigers" are also competing with larger firms in foundation model research. Zhipu AI's GLM-5.2 model has attracted attention among programmers looking for alternatives to products from Anthropic and OpenAI. White House adviser and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has said many technology insiders see GLM-5.2 as the first Chinese model to match and often beat public AI models from major US labs.

Shanghai-based MiniMax offers products ranging from AI companions to video-generation tools. Founder Yan Junjie said in an internal memo this month that the company would continue pursuing its AI plans despite stock market volatility.

Moonshot AI, known for its Kimi models, has recently completed a $2 billion funding round, people familiar with the matter said. Its latest valuation has risen to $31.5 billion. The company's Chinese name, Yue Zhi Anmian, refers to Pink Floyd's album "The Dark Side of the Moon," reflecting co-founder Yang Zhilin's interest in rock music.

Newer entrants are also joining the race. Food delivery platform Meituan said in June that its LongCat-2.0 model was the first of its size to be trained using domestically developed computer chips, a step in China's effort to reduce reliance on foreign AI hardware.

Xiaomi, better known for smartphones and consumer electronics, has entered foundation model development later than many peers. Founder Lei Jun said in March that individuals and companies need to embrace the AI era and that Xiaomi will invest at least $8.7 billion in AI over the next three years. Its Mimo-V2.5 model currently ranks second by monthly usage on OpenRouter, a platform that lets users access multiple AI models.