Beijing-based Zhipu AI released its new flagship model, GLM-5.2, earlier this month, sparking a new “DeepSeek moment” in Silicon Valley. American entrepreneurs and researchers praised the model’s coding performance and cost-effectiveness, with users calling it the first-ever open-weight model reliable enough for day-to-day coding workflows. Matt Velloso, a former vice-president at Meta Platforms and Google DeepMind, stated on X last week that he had been using GLM-5.2 “all day” and found it to be the “first open model that passes the bar as a daily driver”. Responding to a user comparing GLM-5.2 to OpenAI’s proprietary GPT-5.5 released in April, Velloso added the Chinese model was “more to the point, doesn’t talk too much, doesn’t go in circles trying to explain itself, just does the job”. Zhipu AI, known internationally as Z.ai, made GLM-5.2 available on June 13. The launch came a day after leading US lab Anthropic shelved its most advanced public-facing model, Claude Fable 5, to comply with a Washington directive blocking foreign users. GLM-5.2 stands out as the first Chinese model to rank in the top three globally on a major benchmark.