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China’s overlooked internet army is quietly embedding AI into everyday businesses

China’s overlooked internet army is quietly embedding AI into everyday businesses
South China Morning Post Sunday 23 August 2026, 11:00 UTC By Ben Jiang 1 min read
Key Points

While China’s new “AI tigers” have captured global attention for challenging Silicon Valley front-runners, a quieter wave of domestic technology companies is building in-house artificial intelligence systems serving everyday users. Beyond pure-play AI labs like DeepSeek, Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI), Moonshot AI and MiniMax, consumer-facing platforms that span e-commerce, video gaming, social media and travel are developing foundation models tailored to their own business ecosystems, in...

While China’s new “AI tigers” have captured global attention for challenging Silicon Valley front-runners, a quieter wave of domestic technology companies is building in-house artificial intelligence systems serving everyday users. Beyond pure-play AI labs like DeepSeek, Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI), Moonshot AI and MiniMax, consumer-facing platforms that span e-commerce, video gaming, social media and travel are developing foundation models tailored to their own business ecosystems, in efforts...
China (LOCATION) AI (ORG) Silicon Valley (LOCATION) Zhipu AI (PERSON) Moonshot AI (ORG) MiniMax (PERSON)
Originally published by South China Morning Post Read original →

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