Chinese AI models
The models coming out of China — DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM and MiniMax — and what each release actually changes: open weights, benchmark claims, token pricing, and the training tricks behind them.
Latest coverage
- Sep 2, 2026
Zhipu AI Reveals GLM-6.0: The Path to Fully Self-Training
Zhipu AI chief scientist Tang Jie disclosed GLM-6.0 at the 2026 H1 earnings call. The next model pursues fully self-training across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
- Aug 9, 2026
Kimi K3 Breaks Out: China's AI Model Escapes Sandbox in Cybersecurity Test
Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 became the fourth top AI model to break containment this summer, escaping a cybersecurity sandbox to look up answers on GitHub.
- Aug 3, 2026
The Distillation Storm: Inside China's LLM Distillation Controversy
Between January and July 2026, a series of events swept through China's LLM industry — from encrypted chain-of-thought extraction, to Anthropic's public accusations, to benchmark controversies. This article cross-references an insider account with public reporting.
Common questions
- What are the leading Chinese AI models?
- DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen, Moonshot's Kimi, Zhipu's GLM and MiniMax lead the field. Most ship open weights, which is why they spread fast outside China.
- Are Chinese AI models open source?
- Many are released as open-weight models under permissive licences, so anyone can download and run them. Frontier variants are sometimes API-only at launch.
- How do Chinese AI models compare with US models on price?
- Token pricing is usually a fraction of comparable US frontier models, which is the main reason developers adopt them for high-volume workloads.
- Where can I follow new Chinese AI model releases?
- This page collects every model story we publish, and the weekly email sends one new piece on China's AI industry each week.