Published Wed, Feb 11, 2026 · 06:40 PM
[BEIJING] Chinese AI developer Zhipu is set to release an upgrade of its flagship model, accelerating a race to preempt an expected new product from DeepSeek.
The latest iteration of Zhipu’s large language model, dubbed GLM-5, is designed to tackle complex coding and agentic tasks and has been measured directly against Anthropic’s Claude Opus series, the company said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 11). GLM-5, with more than double the number of parameters of its predecessor, will officially roll out early on Thursday, Zhipu said.
Markets have this month shown elevated sensitivity to new artificial intelligence releases that threaten established businesses, hitting everything from legal and compliance software to video games. Zhipu itself, listed at the start of this year, has jumped more than 50 per cent this week after JPMorgan initiated coverage and GLM-5 was first launched in stealth mode over the weekend.
The Beijing-based AI company joins peers including Moonshot AI and ByteDance in rolling out new models ahead of the Chinese New Year. The industry expects DeepSeek to release its next-generation architecture during the holiday, in a move likely to set a new benchmark for Chinese open-source models.
Moonshot released its latest LLM last month, and now enjoys a position topping performance charts among open-source providers. ByteDance’s new Seedance two video model has elicited high praise for its performance and yielded a number of impressive demonstrations that haven been widely shared online.
Valued at roughly US$18 billion, Zhipu is the first major global LLM builder to list on a stock market. It got its start in 2019, led by Tsinghua University researchers, with backing from a long list of government funds and early investment by Internet leaders Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.
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Zhipu is now transitioning from building customized AI solutions for business clients in China to offering its AI to global users. The company sells subscriptions to its GLM Coding Plan, similar to Anthropic’s Claude Code, which is unavailable in China.
In an internal memo after Zhipu’s initial public offering, co-founder and chief AI scientist Tang Jie touted the imminent release of GLM-5, saying the company must return to its roots in fundamental research. “DeepSeek was a wake-up call,” Tang wrote. BLOOMBERG
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