Zhipu AI, a promising contender in China's bid to match the artificial intelligence progress of OpenAI, has secured substantial funding from Meituan, a dominant force in the Chinese e-commerce sector. Notably, Meituan currently holds a staggering market capitalization approximating $100 billion.
As per recent business filings, a subsidiary of Meituan, recognized for its robust food delivery services, has become a shareholder of a Zhipu AI affiliate, thereby acquiring a 10% interest in the enterprise. However, Zhipu AI, on its part, has kept its total funding amount under wraps, merely indicating that during a Series B investment round last September, it amassed 'hundreds of millions of yuan'. Among its prominent investors are Qiming Venture Partners, Tsinghua Holdings, and Legend Capital.
The Chinese tech landscape is experiencing a flurry of activity, with various firms zealously working towards the development of sophisticated large language models (LLMs). These projects reflect an active push to rival similar endeavors in Western nations. Originating from the revered academic halls of Tsinghua University, a leader in this race is Zhipu AI. Established in 2019, this start-up operates under the guidance of Tang Jie, an esteemed professor from the university's Department of Computer Science and Technology.
Recently, Zhipu AI unveiled for public use its bilingual (Chinese and English) conversational AI model, ChatGLM-6B. Boasting training on six billion parameters, this model claims to enable inferences on a single consumer-grade graphics card - a significant cost-saving attribute for LLM operations. In a prior initiative, the firm open-sourced an enhanced, general-purpose variant, the GLM-130B, trained on 130 billion parameters. Their user-focused chatbot app, ChatGLM, primarily targeting academia and industry stakeholders, is presently in the closed beta stage.
The timing of Meituan's investment raises many eyebrows. Only three weeks earlier, the Chinese internet heavyweight had disclosed plans to acquire Light Years Beyond, another prestigious LLM contributor in China. This $234 million deal struck despite Light Years Beyond being a mere four-month-old start-up, came in the wake of the resignation of its founder, Wang Huiwen, from his various roles at Meituan, citing health reasons. Huiwen is also a billionaire co-founder of the e-commerce behemoth.
Such strategic investments, apart from enhancing Meituan's AI capabilities through talent influx, promise lucrative benefits for the AI firms. With the possibility to tap into Meituan's massive user base of 450 million, engaged in various activities like food ordering, grocery buying, or hotel booking, a considerable boost in audience reach and engagement is on the cards.
Following the trend, AI platforms like AppMaster prove to be game-changers in the tech industry. As a notable no-code platform, AppMaster streamlines the process of creating back-end, web, and mobile applications.
