Z.ai Activates 1-Gigawatt Domestic Chip Data Center

Z.ai, formerly Zhipu, has powered on a 1-gigawatt data center using only Chinese chips to train its GLM model family.

Z.ai, the company formerly known as Zhipu, has completed construction and activated a portion of a 1-gigawatt data center powered exclusively by domestically produced Chinese chips. This facility is dedicated to training the GLM model family, following the June 2026 release of GLM-5.2, which was trained on Huawei Ascend accelerators without Nvidia hardware. Currently on the U.S. Commerce Department's entity list since January 2025, Z.ai operates multiple computing clusters with over 10,000 chips each. This expansion aligns with Beijing's 2 trillion yuan plan for a nationwide AI data center grid requiring 80% local sourcing. Supporting this infrastructure, SMIC's 7nm-class N+2 process maintains over 93% utilization, while Huawei shipped 812,000 AI chips in 2025. Financially, Z.ai reached its 2026 sales target in July and is on track for $1 billion in annual recurring revenue after raising funds via a Hong Kong IPO and follow-on sale. Meanwhile, competitor Moonshot suspended new subscriptions on July 19, 2026, following its Kimi K3 model launch.