China's Alibaba on Monday introduced its largest and most capable AI model to date, sending its shares higher, while a research firm reported that DeepSeek's newest product features pricing more than 100 times cheaper than Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.
The two developments highlight the rapid pace of advancement in artificial intelligence by Chinese tech firms, which are locked in a fierce and fast-moving battle to build more powerful systems without making them prohibitively expensive to run.
Both models – Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Max and DeepSeek's V4-Flash – underline Chinese commitment to open-weight models as the firms seek to gain traction among developers globally.
"Chinese AI companies have found an important market. Many business workflows do not need the industry's very best model," said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at research firm Omdia.
"They need models that are good enough, affordable, transparent and accessible, and open-weight models help meet that demand."
