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Comment by JoeLee1991 | Hacker News Reader

JoeLee1991

I've been using it quite a bit too. My main complaint is that it can be really slow sometimes — like, really slow — and the speed feels pretty inconsistent.

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z.ai is using all Chinese hardware for flash: https://thenewstack.io/glm-5-3-flash-chinese-chips/

There are other providers with much faster inference, like BaseTen at >100t/s: https://openrouter.ai/z-ai/glm-5.3-flash#performance

How do I find out where the openrouter model providers' servers are located?

If you click on the provider name, the panel that pops up shows a "Region" value. Not every provider lists their region, however.

I think the region is just the HQ of the provider. So z.ai's region is Singapore but it's quite likely that their servers are actually in China

I don't think that's right, or if it is, OpenRouter has incorrect data. Several Chinese companies (headquartered in China) have Singapore listed as their region on OR. And some companies, like Alibaba Cloud, have multiple regions listed.

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but this makes me think that the region is where the servers are, not where the HQ is.

I couldn't find any article that states z.ai has a data center in Singapore. There are stories of their new 1 GW data center in China though. Also, openrouter lists HQs on their providers page which matches the regions. https://openrouter.ai/providers

Interesting. I wonder where they're getting their data from then, because they list Z.ai under Singapore, but everything I'm finding says they're based in Beijing. Same with MiniMax.

Many Chinese AI companies have their HQs in Singapore because of US sanctions. If I remember it correctly Manus is also based there. But it's a Chinese company through and through as we know from the events that unfolded after Meta's buyout attempt.

Does Chinese hardware mean fabbed in China or designed in China and fabbed by TSMC?

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