Zhipu builds massive data center with Chinese chips for AI growth

Zhipu has built a 1-gigawatt data center using only Chinese chips, a key step to replace restricted Nvidia chips for China's AI growth. The partially running center powers its GLM platform and can supply electricity to about 750,000 homes.

The company runs multiple computing clusters, each with over 10,000 chips, making it one of China's biggest AI server hubs. It competes with Moonshot AI, which recently released the Kimi K3 model challenging top models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

China plans to invest about 2 trillion yuan in data centers over five years to tackle computing limits. Zhipu raised billions via a Hong Kong IPO and may hit $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, positioning itself as an AI provider for businesses.