Why China is giving away its best AI models
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<img alt="" data-caption="People visit the booth of Kimi, an LLM developed by the Chinese startup Moonshot, during the World AI Conference in Shanghai, China, July 20th. | Image: LONG WEI/ Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images" data-portal-copyright="Image: LONG WEI/ Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/gettyimages-2286280160.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />
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People visit the booth of Kimi, an LLM developed by the Chinese startup Moonshot, during the World AI Conference in Shanghai, China, July 20th. | Image: LONG WEI/ Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images </figcaption>
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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Silicon Valley has spent much of the past week on red alert, digesting the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/967781/chinese-ai-models-open-source-moonshot-kimi-k3-alibaba-qwen">arrival of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3</a>, a Chinese AI model that can allegedly beat some of the best systems built by US companies at a fraction of the cost. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Its performance alone would have been enough to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/968136/chinese-ai-models-another-sputnik-moment">intensify the rivalry between the US and China</a>. But Moonshot's plan to release the model's weights for free - and its <a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/971217/the-kimi-k3-countdown-is-on">clear targeting of US users</a> - has fueled deeper unease about whether closed American models can continue to dominate as increasingly capable open alternatives enter the market. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Open-weight models give developers far greater control than proprietary syst …</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/971444/how-chinese-open-weight-ai-models-impact-us-companies">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
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