Z.ai Activates 1-Gigawatt AI Data Center Using Only Chinese Chips
Chinese AI developer Z.ai (formerly Zhipu) has completed construction of a 1-gigawatt data center powered exclusively by domestically produced chips, with partial activation underway. The facility will train the company's GLM model family. Bloomberg reported that Z.ai now operates multiple computing clusters each containing over 10,000 chips. While the chip supplier was not named, Z.ai's recent training of GLM-5.2 on Huawei Ascend accelerators suggests Huawei is the source. The company has been on the U.S. Commerce Department's entity list since January 2025, cutting off legal access to Nvidia silicon. Chinese accelerators like Huawei's Ascend trail Nvidia's Blackwell on performance per watt, meaning a gigawatt of domestic silicon delivers less usable compute. The development comes amid Beijing's plan to spend roughly 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion) over five years on a nationwide AI data center grid, with at least 80% of technology sourced domestically. However, supply constraints at SMIC and limited HBM production pose challenges. Z.ai is on track for $1 billion in annual recurring revenue after hitting its 2026 sales target in July.
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