Chinese AI models gain US market share

Chinese AI models are rapidly gaining adoption in the United States and globally due to their lower cost, open-source nature, and improving performance. Key models include Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, Z.ai's GLM-5.2, DeepSeek's V4, and Alibaba's Qwen3.8 Max. These models are increasingly competitive with frontier US models from Anthropic and OpenAI, though they still lag in overall capabilities. US companies like Coinbase are switching to Chinese models to cut costs, and OpenRouter data shows the top five most popular models are Chinese. The US government, under President Donald Trump, has accused Moonshot of using covert methods to build K3 based on Anthropic's Fable, and has imposed export controls on some US models, which experts say may inadvertently boost Chinese competitors. Chinese President Xi Jinping has championed open-source AI and global equity. Chinese AI startups are raising funding and expanding globally, but face sustainability concerns, as seen with Z.ai's large net loss despite revenue growth.