China’s overlooked internet army is quietly embedding AI into everyday businesses

While China’s new “AI tigers” have captured global attention for challenging Silicon Valley front-runners, a quieter wave of domestic technology companies is building in-house artificial intelligence systems serving everyday users. Beyond pure-play AI labs like DeepSeek, Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI), Moonshot AI and MiniMax, consumer-facing platforms that span e-commerce, video gaming, social media and travel are developing foundation models tailored to their own business ecosystems, in efforts