China's 'open' AI is a terrible business, and nothing like open-source software

Z.ai executives attend a listing ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. KANE WU/Reuters Zhipu's open-weight AI model GLM 5.2 wow developers, but its stock has plunged. Open-source software benefits from easy, cheap distribution. Open-weight AI is very different. Other companies often run Chinese open-weight models. That's where the money is made. The angst over China's latest AI models is missing an important business fact: " open weight " AI is not the same thing as open-source software. Open-source software, where the code is freely shared, can be an amazing business. Think Red Hat , which IBM bought for $34 billion. Open-weight AI models are different — and, so far, they're proving to be a terrible business. Take Z.ai, also known as Zhipu. It's publicly traded, so we can see its finances. Last year, the Chinese company lost almost $500 million on revenue of about $107 million.