Chinese AI Company Zhipu Experiences Rapid Growth! "AI Hegemony War" Act 2: The Chinese Strategy Behind Zhipu AI's Overseas Expansion

1. Breaking News: OpenAI Sounds the "Alarm"

On the morning of June 25 (U.S. time), OpenAI shared an internal memo reporting that **"Zhipu AI is rapidly securing government projects in multiple regions."** The content quickly spread through Investing.com and Reuters, causing a stir in the U.S. tech and policy community.investing.comreuters.com

▸ Lock-in Strategy: "Introduce Chinese models and operational standards to developing countries first, creating a state where the West cannot catch up."
▸ "Responsible & Transparent AI" Initiative: Leveraging the AI safety debates in the West to export a Chinese version of the "Responsible AI Template."

2. What is Zhipu AI? — The Journey of a Tsinghua University Venture

Spun out from Tsinghua University's KEG Lab in 2019, it developed its own architecture, GLM. By open-sourcing the ChatGLM series, it gained recognition and raised over 200 billion yen in total from 2023 to 2025. State-owned funds and Saudi Aramco's Prosperity7 are also among its shareholders.2023～25年で累計2,000億円超を調達.note.com

▸ Technology Portfolio: Deploying dialogue, image, code, and agent systems as a "multimodal task force."
▸ Government Project Models: Strong in localization with projects like agricultural support LLM (Kenya) and multilingual education AI (Malaysia).

3. Partnership with Huawei: Double Lock of Hardware + Software

Another point of concern in the OpenAI memo is the "delivery with Huawei-made inference servers" model. Amid U.S. sanctions limiting GPUs, Huawei's Ascend chip becomes a key to "de-NVIDIA," aligning with the data sovereignty demands of contracting countries.investing.com

4. The Geopolitical Expansion: Why Do Emerging Countries Choose Zhipu AI?

5. How Does Social Media See It? Real-time Temperature Differences

• X (formerly Twitter) English-speaking Sphere

  • "🇨🇳 is aiming for a 'regulation race'" (Policy Researcher @pstAsiatech)twitter.com

  • "Evidence that OpenAI can't hide its anxiety" (AI Investor @Algos4Alpha)

• Weibo Chinese-speaking Sphere

  • "It's a pride that domestic large models are blooming in the Middle East and Africa" (Top Hot Comment)

  • "Won't focusing only on government projects hinder the growth of a private ecosystem?" (Popular Critic "科技冷眼")

• Japanese-speaking X

  • "Another scramble for 'digital colonies'?" (International Politics Cluster)

  • "It's good that developing countries have more choices for tech sovereignty" (Development Economics Account)

6. OpenAI's Countermeasures

In its **"OpenAI for Countries"** initiative announced in May, OpenAI has already disclosed plans to build a $10 billion LLM data center in UAE (Stargate UAE). Moving forward, it is expected to form a block akin to an "AI G7," emphasizing interoperability and safety standards.axios.com

7. Governance Battle Over Global Standards

In April this year, China proposed the **"International AI Risk Cooperation Framework" at the Shanghai Summit, with 22 countries from ASEAN, the Middle East, and Africa expressing support. In response, the US and Europe are deepening the OECD/G7's "Hiroshima AI Process."** The increase in Zhipu AI projects should be seen as part of a strategy to establish Chinese standards as a fait accompli on the ground.hub.baai.ac.cn

8. Future Issues and Business Impact

1. Security and Export Controls: The possibility of the U.S. Department of Commerce adding Zhipu AI to the entity list.

2. Data Sovereignty vs Cost: To what extent emerging countries will demand "domestic operation."

3. Bipolarization of AI Stacks: Separation into "U.S.-based" and "China-based" from cloud to chipsets to frameworks, with interoperability costs becoming a new burden for companies.

9. Conclusion

The warning from OpenAI is not just a competitive analysis but indicates that AI infrastructure has fully shifted to the main battleground of geopolitics. The pace of Zhipu AI's expansion is also an experimental ground for "China to preempt AI standards," marking an era where U.S.-China regulations, partnerships, and standard-setting determine the gravitational field of investment decisions and innovation. For Japanese companies and research institutions to maintain neutrality while capturing demonstration opportunities, "dual supply" and multilateral collaboration are essential—this is the biggest lesson from the current uproar.