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In focus
- China’s AI tigers are going where OpenAI can’t just yet: the stock market
- Why going the acquisition route makes more sense for fintech companies mulling over market expansion
- GoTo Group announces new CEO as Grab’s takeover nears
Hello reader,
Looking at today’s AI race between countries, we can safely say that the US and China are leading the pack. Both have produced the highest number of notable AI models, and the intelligence gap between them has been narrowing down fast.
The US has both tech giants and frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic dominating the charts. Meanwhile, China has these so-called “AI tigers,” which are fast-growing AI labs backed by the local government and the country’s major tech firms.
Beijing-based Zhipu AI and Shanghai-headquartered MiniMax are among them. These companies are inching closer to what OpenAI and Anthropic can’t do just yet: going public.
Not much is known about Zhipu and MiniMax outside of their home country, so our China-based freelance writer sheds light on them in today’s first top story. Both firms develop open-source models, but their businesses look very different: Zhipu generates most of its revenue from government agencies and state-owned firms, while MiniMax relies heavily on its consumer-facing AI companion app, Talkie.
These open-source models have gained traction globally, especially considering models from other Chinese players such as Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Moonshot AI. For Southeast Asian startups eager to build their AI stacks in-house, that means they have more options to start with rather than building from scratch.
Speaking of building from scratch, our second top story today examines how this strategy still makes 100% sense for fintech companies that are entering new markets. In some cases, going the acquisition route would give them a higher chance of success.
Whether in AI or fintech, the opportunity window often closes fast. It’s up to the players how they plan to seize it.
Glenn Kaonang, journalist
Top Stories
1️⃣ Decoding China’s genAI duel as it shifts toward IPO arena
Photo credit: Shutterstock
A Beijing-based investor cautions that despite their momentum, neither Zhipu AI nor MiniMax “has a well-defined business model yet.” Large language models (LLMs) are still seen largely as infrastructure, and that layer has a far murkier path to profitability than businesses that build applications or hardware on top.
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