The Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek created significant buzz in Silicon Valley and Wall Street earlier this year, yet it is not included in the prestigious group of AI startups in China referred to as the “Six Tigers. ” The “Six Tigers” encompass six leading AI firms—Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, MiniMax, Baichuan Intelligence, StepFun, and 01. AI—that are recognized as the forefront players in China's AI sector. They boast talent from both U. S. and Chinese tech powerhouses, such as Google and Huawei. Here’s a closer look at China's “Six Tigers. ” Zhipu AI, established in 2019 by two professors at Tsinghua University, ranks among the earliest generative-AI startups in China. Based in Beijing, it creates foundational models that fuel various applications, including a conversational chatbot called ChatGLM and an AI video generator named Ying. In August, Zhipu rolled out its GLM-4-Plus model, claiming it rivals OpenAI’s GPT-4o in performance. Trained on high-quality synthetic data, GLM-4-Plus can handle extensive text input. In October, Zhipu introduced its GLM-4-Voice end-to-end speech model, which exhibits human-like speech traits such as intonation and dialect, facilitating real-time voice conversations in both Chinese and English. In January, the outgoing Biden administration added Zhipu to a restricted trade list alongside over 20 other Chinese companies suspected of supporting China’s military efforts. Recently, Zhipu secured more than one billion yuan (approximately $140 million) in a funding round featuring investors like Alibaba, Tencent, and several state-backed entities. Moonshot AI, founded in 2023 at Tsinghua University by AI researcher Yang Zhilin—an alumnus of both Tsinghua and Carnegie Mellon University—has quickly established its place in the market.

Its Kimi AI chatbot is among China’s top five, boasting nearly 13 million monthly active users as of November, according to Counterpoint Research. Kimi can process queries as long as two million Chinese characters. With a valuation of $3. 3 billion, Moonshot AI is supported by some of the largest tech corporations in China, including Alibaba and Tencent. MiniMax, founded in 2021 by AI researcher Yan Junjie, is known for its popular chatbot, Talkie. Initially launched as Glow in 2022, it was subsequently enhanced and rebranded to Xingye in China and Talkie for international markets. Talkie allows users to engage in conversations with various personalities, both real and fictional. However, according to the South China Morning Post, the app was removed from the U. S. Apple App Store in December due to “technical reasons. ” Additionally, MiniMax developed the text-to-video AI generator Hailuo AI. Last March, Alibaba led a $600 million funding round for MiniMax, raising its valuation to $2. 5 billion. Baichuan Intelligence, founded in March 2023, employs talent from major tech companies like Microsoft, Huawei, Baidu, and Tencent. Based in Beijing, Baichuan created two open-source large language models—Baichuan-7B and Baichuan-13B—released in 2023. These AI models are commercially available in China and have been tested on datasets in Chinese, English, and multiple languages covering topics such as general knowledge, mathematics, coding, language translation, law, and medicine. In July, Baichuan raised five billion yuan (around $687. 6 million) in a funding round, achieving a valuation of over 20 billion yuan, with investors including Alibaba, Tencent, and several state-backed funds.