New, inexpensive Chinese AI model is catching up with Anthropic, OpenAI on their home turf

New, inexpensive Chinese AI model is catching up with Anthropic, OpenAI on their home turf as Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 gains momentum with open-weight performance. Launched last month by Beijing-based Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI), GLM-5.2 is drawing attention for coding and “agent” capabilities, including executing complex tasks with minimal prompting at a fraction of the cost. It has climbed third-party usage charts such as OpenRouter, where it now ranks above Anthropic’s models. Executives have praised it, and David Sacks said on the All-In podcast it is “a tick below” Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 and near OpenAI’s GPT-5.5. The model’s rise follows Washington lifting curbs on Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos and delays around OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 rollout.