AI MODELS
China’s AI firms turn up the heat
Chinese AI companies Moonshot and Alibaba have unveiled new models they claim can rival the best systems from OpenAI and Anthropic at a much lower cost.
Moonshot’s Kimi K3 reportedly beat most leading US models in the company’s own tests.
Alibaba followed with Qwen3.8, which it described as one of the strongest models available.
Unlike many top US systems, both are expected to be released with open weights, allowing developers to download, adapt and build on them.
Here’s what you should know:
Both companies claim their models can rival top US systems
The models are expected to be open-weight
Independent testing will show how strong they really are
Open weights, open warfare
The claims have not yet been independently tested.
Moonshot plans to release Kimi K3’s full weights on 27 July, while Alibaba says Qwen3.8 will follow soon.
The launches add fresh pressure to the US-China AI race and suggest America’s lead may be getting rather crowded.
Does this mean my tokens will get cheaper now? - MV