As the global artificial intelligence race pushes the limits of scale with massive, trillion-parameter models, a parallel contest is heating up over smaller systems.Instead of relying on sprawling, power-hungry cloud data centres, a growing number of tech companies in China and elsewhere are turning to lightweight models designed to run entirely on smartphones or laptops.Proponents said this localised approach would be a game-changer, promising faster processing, enhanced data privacy and lower operating costs.Investors are buying in. Beijing-based ModelBest, a prominent player in on-device AI, raised more than 5 billion yuan (US$738 million) this year, according to a WeChat post by investor Shanghai Mejoy Capital.ModelBest’s latest C+ Series funding round, completed earlier this week, propelled the firm’s valuation to 20 billion yuan, according to the post.The start-up did not disclose the size of its latest funding round and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.The funding milestone comes amid a flurry of activity in China’s so-called local AI or edge AI sector.