China's AI race with the US is heating up, with Zhipu CEO Tang Jie asserting they are not far behind. A recent exchange with Elon Musk highlighted this, as Zhipu's new GLM-5.2 model shows impressive performance, even outperforming OpenAI's GPT-5.5 in some benchmarks. This development has boosted Zhipu's stock significantly, signaling a strong contender emerging from China in the global AI landscape.