Chinese AI firms gain traction as Anthropic and OpenAI restrict models

The US government tried to build a wall around its best AI models. Companies responded by walking through the open door next to it.

Since the US enacted export controls on Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models in June 2026, Chinese AI companies have surged from bit players to serious contenders in the American enterprise market. Data from OpenRouter shows Chinese models now account for over 30% of AI token usage among US firms on a weekly basis, peaking at 46%. Before February 2026, that number averaged just 11%.

The great migration

The math here is brutally simple. Chinese AI models from companies like DeepSeek, Z.ai, and Alibaba’s Qwen are priced 60-90% lower than their top US equivalents. Some are priced at roughly 5% of what comparable Anthropic models charge.

DeepSeek has led individual model usage share during the adoption surge. But the most dramatic story belongs to Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 model, which saw a 27-fold increase in daily token volume within its first full week after launching in late June 2026.