What is GLM 5.2? The new Chinese AI model that's rivalling Anthropic

The timing is the real story, a Chinese lab dropped a near frontier coding model with zero regional restrictions right as US export rules briefly locked foreign users out of Claude entirely. Open weights plus a fraction of the price means any developer anywhere can self host something close to frontier quality, which quietly undercuts the whole strategy of gating access to powerful models. If you build on AI APIs, this is the competitive pressure that will actually move your bill.