---
type: blog
source_url: https://www.perplexity.ai/discover/you/0c959367-9c77-4042-babd-871c4bc93c8a
retrieved: 2026-07-01
title: "Tech CEOs hail China's GLM-5.2 as top open-weights AI model"
author: "Perplexity Discover (aggregated from OfficeChai, ASCII, HyperAI, TestingCatalog, VectorLab)"
tags: [glm-5.2, z-ai, artificial-analysis, intelligence-index, open-weights, moe, mit-license, hugging-face, china-ai, benchmarks, swe-bench, coding, industry-reaction]
posted_by: "Pit Weber (@PWeber)"
posted_date: 2026-07-01
topic: "News & Infos (Topic 13)"
---

# Tech CEOs hail China's GLM-5.2 as top open-weights AI model

**Source:** Perplexity Discover article, published Jun 21, 2026
**URL:** https://www.perplexity.ai/discover/you/0c959367-9c77-4042-babd-871c4bc93c8a
**Shared by:** Pit Weber in OME-Gruppe, Topic "News & Infos" (Topic 13), 01.07.2026

## Article Summary

Z.AI's GLM-5.2, released on June 13, 2026, has vaulted to the top of the open-weights category on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, scoring 51 on version 4.1 of the benchmark and placing fourth overall globally — ahead of every Google model currently available. The 744-billion-parameter Mixture-of-Experts model, released under a permissive MIT license with weights freely downloadable from Hugging Face, has drawn immediate praise from prominent tech leaders and reignited debate about the competitive dynamics between Chinese and Western AI labs.

## Benchmark Performance

GLM-5.2's score of 51 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1 places it behind only:
1. Claude Fable 5
2. Claude Opus 4.8
3. OpenAI's GPT-5.5 (at high reasoning effort)

...and well ahead of Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, which scores 46.

### Open-Weights Leaderboard

| Model | Score | Type |
|---|---|---|
| **GLM-5.2** | **51** | Open-Weights |
| MiniMax-M3 | 44 | Open-Weights |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro Max | 44 | Open-Weights |

GLM-5.2 leads the open-weights category by a **7-point margin**.

### Coding Benchmarks

| Benchmark | GLM-5.2 | GPT-5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Pro | **62.1** | 58.6 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | **81.0** | — |

GLM-5.2 **surpasses GPT-5.5** on SWE-bench Pro.

### Architecture Details

- **744B total parameters** (Mixture-of-Experts)
- **40B active parameters** per inference call
- Gains over GLM-5.1 came entirely from **training improvements**, not scale
- **1M token context window** (expanded from GLM-5.1's 200K)
- **$1.40 per million input tokens** — a fraction of closed frontier model pricing

## Industry Reaction

### Guillermo Rauch (CEO, Vercel)
> "Genuinely impressed, almost shocked" by GLM-5.2's coding ability. "This changes things."

### Aaron Levie (CEO, Box)
> Called the state of open-weights AI "pretty remarkable." As the gap between open and closed models remains narrow, more value can be built on the applied layer.

### Jeremy Howard (Co-founder, Answer.AI & Fast.AI)
> Called the model "a marvel" and placed it on par with Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5.

## Strategic Context

- **Z.AI** (formerly Zhipu AI) completed a **Hong Kong IPO in January 2026**
- Has maintained its development pipeline **without any Nvidia hardware** since being placed on the **US Entity List**
- The release echoes the disruption caused by **DeepSeek in early 2025**, which forced a reassessment of Chinese AI capabilities
- Google's Gemini team has "been struggling as of late," with models failing to keep pace with both Chinese open-source labs and Western closed-model competitors

## Sources Cited by Perplexity

1. [OfficeChai: "This Changes Things": Open-Source GLM 5.2 Impresses Vercel, Box CEOs](https://officechai.com/ai/this-changes-things-open-source-glm-5-2-impresses-vercel-box-ceos/)
2. [ASCII: GLM-5.2 Tops Open Weights Models on Intelligence Index](https://ascii.co.uk/news/article/news-20260618-39c5ea5f/glm-52-tops-open-weights-models-on-intelligence-index)
3. [OfficeChai: GLM 5.2 Places 4th On Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index](https://officechai.com/ai/glm-5-2-places-4th-on-artificial-analysis-intelligence-index-becomes-most-capable-open-model/)
4. [HyperAI: GLM-5.2 Leads Open Weights Models on Artificial Analysis](https://hyper.ai/en/stories/3750d69a6dbe45ec1ec481dd1abfc614)
5. [TestingCatalog: Z AI launches GLM-5.2 open-weight model with 1M context](https://testingcatalog.com/z-ai-launches-glm-5-2-open-weight-model-with-1m-context/)
6. [VectorLab: GLM-5.2 analysis](https://vectorlab.dev/news/glm-5-2/)

## Relevance for Our Setup

- **GLM-5.2 is Hector's primary model** (via `ollama/glm-5.2:cloud`) — this benchmark validates that choice quantitatively
- The **Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1** is the first independent benchmark to place GLM-5.2 at #1 in open-weights globally
- **SWE-bench Pro score of 62.1** (beating GPT-5.5's 58.6) confirms the coding capabilities documented in IAmFabian's and Arnie's video tests
- The **$1.40/M input token pricing** concrete number — significantly cheaper than even the Z.ai Coding Plan's effective rate
- **No Nvidia hardware** since Entity List — Z.AI achieved this on alternative infrastructure, relevant for sovereignty/geopolitical considerations
- **Industry validation** from Rauch (Vercel), Levie (Box), Howard (Fast.AI) — three prominent Western tech voices

### Cross-References

- [[../../wiki/concepts/llm/glm-5.2-zai-coding-model.md]] — Main wiki page for GLM-5.2
- [[../../wiki/concepts/llm/chinese-model-cost-routing.md]] — DeRonin's cost-routing field report
- [[../../wiki/concepts/llm/ai-intelligence-commoditization-thesis.md]] — Intelligence commoditization debate
- [[../../wiki/architecture/model-routing.md]] — Hector's model routing architecture