2025-01-16 10:16:08 :
(Bloomberg) — Washington has blacklisted Tencent Holdings Ltd.-backed startup Zhipu for trade restrictions, targeting one of a handful of emerging companies considered frontrunners in the race to develop an OpenAI ChatGPT solution.
The Commerce Department on Wednesday placed the startup on its Entity List, barring U.S. suppliers from selling to the company without a license, another last-minute step by the outgoing Biden administration. The move coincides with a new round of regulatory measures aimed at preventing advanced chips such as artificial intelligence accelerators from entering China.
Backed by Tencent and Alibaba Group, Zhipu is one of six promising artificial intelligence developers in China that have secured financing at high valuations. The company was developed from the research institute of Tsinghua University and is committed to developing large-scale language models such as OpenAI. It was valued at nearly US$3 billion last year.
Chip said the U.S. decision “lacks factual basis.” “Being included in the entity list will not have a material impact on the company’s business,” Zhipu wrote on WeChat on Wednesday.
An earlier ban on the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China by U.S. manufacturers such as Nvidia has restricted Zhipu’s access to the most advanced artificial intelligence development hardware. The company raised about $410 million in its latest funding round in December and said it has tens of millions of users in China.
Zhipu is one of a number of Chinese companies blacklisted by the U.S. government in recent weeks. A week ago, Tencent was added to the Defense Department’s list of companies with ties to the Chinese military, along with Tesla battery maker CATL.
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