GPTunneL in talks with Chinese AI developer Z.AI on partnership

AI platform GPTunneL is discussing the format of a partnership with Chinese AI developer Z.AI. The parties are working on an agreement under which GPTunneL would become the official distributor of Z.AI models in Russia. Currently, the companies have already agreed on integrating GLM models into GPTunneL, testing them in Russian enterprise scenarios, engineering support, and early access to updates. Z.AI, known for the GLM family of large language models, considers the partner for entering the local market. GLM models are used for coding, AI agents, analytics, research, and complex multi-step scenarios, competing with OpenAI and Anthropic on quality and cost. The models run on Huawei chips and use an open-weights approach. In preliminary tests, GLM showed about 10% lower quality in agent scenarios but reduced budgets by up to 60%. GPTunneL will test models for Russian language and Cyrillic support, stability, cost, speed, coding quality, and corporate applicability. Co-founder Kliment Vikulov said Z.AI brings technology and vendor expertise, while GPTunneL brings local market, product tests, and enterprise understanding. In the enterprise direction, GPTunneL plans broader collaboration, including shared scenarios, API setup, integration, and launch support, especially in telecom, industry, and education.