Alibaba, Tencent And Ant Invest $342 Million in AI Startup Zhipu, Eyeing Rivalry with Microsoft's OpenAI

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA and Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY featured amongst major Chinese investors doling out 2.5 billion yuan ($342 million) in artificial technology startup Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co.

The other investors included Jack Ma's Ant Group Co to Xiaomi Corp XIACF XIACY in backing Zhipu's aspirations to rival Microsoft Corp MSFT backed OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Also Read: Is Nvidia Benefiting From US Sanctions On China?

Many Zhipu investors joined a recent $300 million round of financing for Zhipu-rival Baichuan, Bloomberg reports.

The investments coincided with the U.S. intensifying its advanced AI technology sanctions against China, citing national security threats.

Venture capital firms and tech leaders remain invested in training and developing AI services across Silicon Valley and Europe. 

This week, Baidu Inc BIDU founder Robin Li gave a shoutout to its large language model Ernie, reaching OpenAI's GPT-4 levels.

Zhipu was among the first Chinese firms to win government approval for a public rollout in August. It has since released an open-source model and a chatbot called Qingyan.

Experts see AI technology transforming many industries, from transport to media and finance, potentially powering a new phase of economic growth.