Zhipu launches GLM-4.5 model as China ramps up open-source AI race

Chinese AI firm Z.ai, formerly known as Zhipu, has launched GLM-4.5, an open-source language model designed for intelligent agent applications, as competition heats up among China’s fast-growing generative AI startups.

GLM-4.5 will be available in two versions, with the flagship model featuring 355 billion parameters and a lighter variant, GLM-4.5-Air, running on 106 billion parameters.

“Its performance in reasoning, coding, and agentic capabilities has been evaluated on 12 representative benchmarks,” the company said in a statement. “Based on the average score across all these benchmarks, GLM-4.5 has secured third place globally and the first place among both domestic and open-source models.”

The company said GLM-4.5 is its first foundation model with an “agent-native” architecture, meaning core functions such as reasoning, perception, and action are built directly into the model. This design allows it to autonomously execute multi-step tasks, create complex data visualizations, and manage complete workflows.

In June, OpenAI noted that Z.ai had made significant strides in winning government contracts in multiple provinces, underscoring China’s accelerating push to assert itself in the global AI race.

*Open-source and low-cost*

China’s generative AI sector is expanding quickly, as local startups intensify efforts to improve the performance, affordability, and usability of their open-source large language models (LLMs).

The country has reportedly developed more than 1,500 such models, underscoring its growing ambitions in the global AI race.

GLM-4.5 is positioned as a lower-cost alternative to DeepSeek’s model, which recently drew global attention for its disruptive pricing.

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