Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. , along with other influential Chinese investors, have invested 2. 5 billion yuan ($342 million) in AI startup Zhipu this year. This influx of capital highlights the increasing interest in the red-hot arena of artificial intelligence. Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co. , backed by the country's largest tech firms as well as Ant Group Co. and Xiaomi Corp. , aims to develop domestic rivals to OpenAI's ChatGPT. HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Meituan, and others also participated in the funding round. Another startup, Baichuan, received a $300 million investment from many of the same companies. Both Zhipu and Baichuan are well-known in the space of generative artificial intelligence, aspiring to compete with Microsoft Corp. -backed OpenAI and Google. Venture capital firms and tech leaders are pouring billions into the training and development of AI services, mirroring trends seen in Silicon Valley and Europe. Baidu Inc.

founder Robin Li recently declared his company's large language model, Ernie, as on par with OpenAI's GPT-4, positioning themselves at the forefront of the nationwide AI race. Zhipu, based in Beijing, was among the first Chinese firms to receive government approval for a public rollout in August. Since then, they have released an open-source model and a chatbot called Qingyan. The interest in Zhipu and similar startups signifies the broader implications of the intensifying competition between the US and China in the field of AI. It is expected to revolutionize various industries, including transportation, media, and finance, potentially driving a new phase of economic growth. Additionally, AI technology holds significance in government and military applications, which could further complicate the already strained relationship between Washington and Beijing. The US recently tightened restrictions on Chinese access to advanced chips, such as those produced by Nvidia Corp. and used for training and running AI models. Some Chinese industry experts believe that local AI developers may need to turn to alternative homegrown solutions in the future, although Washington has been adding AI chip design firms to its list of restricted entities.