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Chinese start-ups Zhipu and MiniMax release latest AI models ahead of Hong Kong listing
The near-simultaneous release on Monday underscores the two firms’ efforts to drum up interest for their respective Hong Kong IPOs
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Chinese start-ups Zhipu AI and MiniMax have released new flagship artificial intelligence models within hours of each other, as they vie to become the world’s leading open-source AI systems supplier.
The near-simultaneous release by two of China’s “AI tigers” underscored efforts to drum up interest for their respective initial public offerings in Hong Kong, after both companies passed crucial regulatory hearings over the weekend.
Beijing-based Zhipu AI, known internationally as Z.ai, on Monday evening claimed that its new GLM-4.7 model features improved coding abilities, narrowing the gap with larger US firms Google DeepMind and Anthropic in innovative coding agents.
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Zhipu AI touted the high scores achieved by GLM-4.7 on various coding benchmarks that surpassed those of OpenAI’s GPT-5, which was released in August. GLM-4.7’s scores were just behind those of Google DeepMind’s Gemini Pro 3 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5.
On SWE-Bench, a benchmark that evaluates models on real-world software engineering issues, Anthropic broke the 70 per cent mark in May via its older Claude Opus 4 model, becoming the first closed-source company to do so. Zhipu AI’s GLM-4.7 achieved the same feat for the first time on Monday.
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In a blog post on the same day, Zhipu AI said benchmarks were “only one way to evaluate performance”. It encouraged users to get a “feel” for how the GLM-4.7 model worked.
Hours later, Shanghai-based MiniMax introduced its M2.1 model, which also featured marked improvements in coding abilities on internal tests, while similarly lagging behind Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5.
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