# The AI price war has begun > Source: > Published: 2026-08-25 08:08:03+00:00 # The AI price war has begun The battle is not over who builds the cleverest model but who can turn cheaper intelligence into durable cash flow THE debate over open and closed artificial intelligence models is often dressed up as a philosophical contest. In reality, it is becoming a price war. Chinese developers, such as DeepSeek, [Alibaba’s Qwen](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/alibabas-qwen-hits-3-billion-downloads-outpacing-china-and-us-ai-rivals) and Moonshot’s Kimi, are [releasing increasingly capable open-weight models](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/silicon-valley-divided-over-restricting-chinese-ai-china-closes-gap-us) at a fraction of the cost charged by American frontier laboratories. “Open-weight” means users can download the trained parameters and modify them, subject to licensing terms. It does not imply access to the training code, detailed data information or complete recipe.