What GLM-5.3 Flash running on Chinese hardware actually means

Z.AI confirmed that their most recent model release was running all inference on Chinese manufactured hardware. While no doubt an impressive feat, Western companies still have a huge advantage that I can't see changing quickly. Where is Chinese AI hardware at? To start with, it's worth looking into where Chinese AI hardware is. I'm focusing entirely on the HiSilicon parts - the most competitive parts from Huawei. There are (many, actually) other manufacturers building AI hardware, but it's widely believed that they are no further ahead than HiSilicon, so I think that for brevity it's a fair starting point. One caveat before I go further: Z.AI didn't actually name a chipmaker, and didn't publish throughput or power numbers either. Nobody has independently verified the claim. So I'm assuming HiSilicon here because it's the only plausible candidate at that scale, not because anyone has confirmed it. It's also worth mentioning that the US export restrictions (CSIS has a good overview) of…