Four Z AI founders worked on research linked to Chinese intelligence agency

Four founders of the Chinese artificial intelligence company Z AI Co worked on research as part of a joint project with a technology institute that the United Kingdom government accused of having very strong ties to the main spy agency in China. Bloomberg Tech and Bloomberg reported the findings based on publicly available research papers from China. [1][2]

Z AI was formerly known outside China as Zhipu AI until 2025. The company produces the GLM family of open weights large language models as its flagship product. [4]

In January 2026, Z AI became the first major Chinese large language model company to complete an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. By August 2026, the firm reached a market capitalization of 62 billion dollars, making it the most valuable public pure play artificial intelligence company in China. [4]