Chinese artificial intelligence start-ups are overhauling their business models as they fight to remain competitive following the widespread adoption of rival DeepSeek’s technology across the country. Zhipu, once considered China’s most prominent large language model start-up, has pinned its hopes on an initial public offering to sustain its cash-intensive growth as it focuses on building up its enterprise sales business, according to two people familiar with the matter. Among China’s other leading generative AI start-ups, 01.ai has stopped “pre-training” large language models to focus on selling tailored AI business solutions using DeepSeek’s models; Baichuan has opted to concentrate on the healthcare market; and Moonshot has slashed its marketing budget for its Kimi chatbot to focus on model training. People close to these companies, which all declined or did not respond to requests for comment, said the shifts show how DeepSeek has drastically altered the shape of China’s burgeoning AI industry. Since the launch of its breakthrough R1 model in late January, the Hangzhou-based start-up was quickly crowned the country’s AI champion by Beijing and has seen lightning adoption of its technology everywhere from hospitals to local governments.

Full commentary : China’s top tech companies are re-evaluating their strategies in artificial intelligence as they race to remain competitive.