@rohanpaul_ai: Per The Information, Zhipu AI is also (after DeepSeek) exploring a custom ASIC after GLM-5.2 usage reportedly jumped 27…
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Zhipu AI is exploring a custom ASIC after DeepSeek, as GLM-5.2 usage jumped 27x in one week, highlighting the shift towards specialized hardware for inference at scale in China's AI industry.
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Cached at: 07/07/26, 07:36 PM
Per The Information, Zhipu AI is also (after DeepSeek) exploring a custom ASIC after GLM-5.2 usage reportedly jumped 27x in one week.
A custom ASIC removes flexibility, but it can cut power draw and per-token cost.
Nvidia GPUs are strong general-purpose machines, but inference at scale has different economics. A fixed model can run better on silicon designed around its own repeated operations.
Zhipu has not chosen a partner, and the project may take more than 2 years.
The pattern is now bigger than one Chinese lab or one model launch. Chinese AI companies are trying to make software, hardware, and deployment less separable.
Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai): DeepSeek is building an inference chip to cut dependence on Nvidia and Huawei in China’s $50B AI-chip market.
DeepSeek’s chip work is still early, with outside partners and private hiring of chip-design engineers.
The hard part is not drawing a chip, but making it at scale.
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