Note that Z.ai also publically announced that they trained another model, GLM-Image, entirely on Huawei Ascend silicon a month ago [1].
[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3339869/zhipu-ai-...
As I wrote in another comment, I think so for a few reasons:
1. The z.ai blog post says GML-5 is compatible with Ascends for inference, without mentioning training -- it says they support "deploying GLM-5 on non-NVIDIA chips, including Huawei Ascend, Moore Threads, Cambricon, Kunlun Chip, MetaX, Enflame, and Hygon" -- many different domestic chips. Note "deploying". https://z.ai/blog/glm-5
2. The SCMP piece you linked just says: "Huawei’s Ascend chips have proven effective at training smaller models like Zhipu’s GLM-Image, but their efficacy for training the company’s flagship series of large language models, such as the next-generation GLM-5, was still to be determined, according to a person familiar with the matter."
3. You're right that z.ai trained a small image model on Ascends. They made a big fuss about it too. If they had trained GLM-5 with Ascends, they likely would've shouted it from the rooftops. https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/15/zhipu_glm_image_huawe...
4. Ascends just aren't that good