The AI price war has begun

Chinese developers including DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen, and Moonshot's Kimi are releasing increasingly capable open-weight AI models at a fraction of the cost charged by American frontier laboratories, signaling the start of an AI price war. The competition is shifting from building the cleverest model to turning cheaper intelligence into durable cash flow.

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.