By Melissa Heikkilä
Publication Date: 2025-11-26 01:15:00
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China has overtaken the US in the global market for “open” artificial intelligence models, gaining a decisive lead in the global use of the powerful technology.
A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and open source AI startup Hugging Face found that the overall share of downloads of new open models made in China rose to 17 percent last year.
This figure surpasses the 15.8 percent share of downloads from American developers such as Google, Meta and OpenAI – the first time that Chinese groups have beaten their American counterparts.
Open models – which developers can download, modify and integrate for free – make it easier for startups to develop products and for researchers to improve them. Widespread adoption will have an outsized impact on the future of AI.
China’s push to launch open models is in stark contrast to…
