As US AI costs soar, global businesses pivot to China’s low-cost, open-weight models

Global businesses are shifting from expensive US AI models like OpenAI's GPT and Anthropic's Claude to cheaper Chinese open-weight models such as Zhipu's GLM-5.2 and DeepSeek's V4 Flash, driven by narrowing performance gaps and cost savings. Vercel reports a 50-fold surge in GLM-5.2 token volume since mid-June, with open-weight models now accounting for 29% of its AI Gateway traffic, nearly tripling since April.

As US AI costs soar, global businesses pivot to China’s low-cost, open-weight models A sharp narrowing of the performance gap is prompting some developers to shift from costly American giants to budget-friendly Chinese alternatives OpenAI https://www.scmp.com/topics/openai?module=inline&pgtype=article ’s GPT and Anthropic’s Claude https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3359901/anthropic-hits-back-after-china-warns-claude-code-backdoor-risks?module=inline&pgtype=article – to cheaper Chinese open-weight models that offer near-frontier performance. Since mid-June, the daily token volume of Zhipu’s GLM-5.2, which operates at about one-fifth the cost of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8, had surged 50-fold on Vercel, the San Francisco-based cloud platform for AI web development reported on Tuesday. DeepSeek’s V4 Flash https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3351239/deepseek-releases-next-gen-ai-model-world-leading-efficiency?module=inline&pgtype=article , a streamlined version of the firm’s flagship V4 Pro, had emerged as the single largest model by volume on the gateway, capturing more than 20 per cent of the platform’s traffic on Wednesday, up from about 15 per cent a month ago. Open-weight models accounted for 29 per cent of token volume on its AI Gateway platform, nearly tripling their share since April, according to Vercel. The rise of these cost-efficient powerhouses marks a growing shift in how companies worldwide source artificial intelligence. While proprietary, closed-source models require premium cloud subscriptions and charge by the token – the basic unit of data processed by an AI – open-weight models allow companies to download code for free and run it on local hardware. The fast-improving capabilities of these free-to-download models have forced businesses to re-evaluate their tech spending. Until recently, enterprises chose to absorb the high cost of premium American models because open alternatives lagged too far behind – a gap that is narrowing fast.