Affordable Chinese AI Model Launches for Belt and Road Initiative Countries

Hungary Today 2025.04.01.

The Zhipu model costs only a fraction compared to DeepSeek R1. The AI development model may be provided to the countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, reported Világgazdaság.

Chinese AI startup, Zhipu, aims to assist the countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, including Hungary, in developing safe and verifiable artificial intelligence (AI) models, said the company’s CEO, Zhang Peng, at an industry event in Beijing. Representatives from the embassies of Hungary, Namibia, Pakistan, and Peru attended his presentation.

Notta reported that DeepSeek is free for regular users, offering an open-source AI tool. However, developers or businesses using DeepSeek’s API (Application Programming Interfaces) may incur costs. DeepSeek’s API is 27 times more affordable than ChatGPT, with pricing at $10 for the same workload that would cost $270 with ChatGPT.

Zhipu’s AI agent will be another alternative to ChatGPT, providing a cheap option for entrepreneurs.

Fact

The Belt and Road Initiative is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the government of China in 2013, to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations. Hungary joined the Belt and Road Initiative in 2015, the first European country to sign a cooperation agreement with China under the initiative. Since then, Hungary has deepened its economic and infrastructural cooperation with China, particularly through projects like the Budapest-Belgrade railway modernization.

Viktor Orbán previously stated that this initiative offers enormous opportunities, not only for large companies, but also for the two countries’ small and medium-sized businesses.

At the Beijing event, Zhipu also launched its AI agent called AutoGLM, which is capable of conducting research. This agent includes the GLM-Z1-Air model that has reasoning capabilities. Zhang explained that

this model matches the performance of DeepSeek R1 but costs only one-thirtieth of it, disrupting the AI sector with its affordability.

The startup stated in a separate announcement that the GLM-Z1-Air can operate even on commercially available GPUs, like personal computers. As an open-source solution, the agent is expected to be available starting in April.

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Via Világgazdaság; Featured picture: Pexels