China Cuts AI Gap as Moonshot Shows Zhipu Isn’t One-Off, BI Says

Chinese AI models narrowed the performance gap with US counterparts to a record-low 6% in June, down from 9% in May, which Bloomberg Intelligence said raises questions about the sustainability of US technological supremacy in the sector.

The Chinese models took two slots in LiveBench’s global ranking of large language model performance last month. The gap averaged about 10% to 15% over the prior 12 months before Zhipu AI’s GLM-5.2 model reached the top of the global ranking in agentic coding.

The attention on Moonshot AI’s Kimi 3 model “highlights that Zhipu’s success was not a one-off,” Robert Lea, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said in a report.

Read: What Is Moonshot AI and Why Is It Roiling Markets?: Explainer

The access to Nvidia Corp.’s chips enabled US companies to push the boundaries of AI performance at a higher cost, they said, while the Chinese players take a smaller and computationally efficient approach, potentially at the cost of performance. “Time will tell which approach yields greater results,” they added.

Read: US Official Says Moonshot Accessed Banned Nvidia Chips

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.