Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent have invested in OpenAI competitor startup Zhipu

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Major Chinese tech companies including Alibaba and Tencent have funded a startup called Zhipu, which is seen in China as the answer to the US-based OpenAI.

Here's What We Know

Zhipu has raised 2.5bn yuan (about $341m) this year,, the company said in a statement. Investors include venture capital funds Sequoia and Hillhouse, as well as tech giants Xiaomi, Alibaba and Tencent.

Zhipu develops artificial intelligence models based on big data for various applications. In August, the company released a chatbot based on its own AI models.

The investment announcements come amid a technological standoff between the US and China, where AI plays a key role. Beijing considers artificial intelligence a crucial technology and plans to increase computing power for its development by 50 per cent by 2025.

However, the US has restricted shipments to China of NVIDIA chips critical for training AI models. In particular, the ban applies to the top-end A100 and H100 accelerators.

In addition to Zhipu, there are other AI startups in China backed by local tech giants. For example, Baichuan raised $300 million from Alibaba and Tencent this week.

Source: CNBC