China has significantly ramped up its artificial intelligence (AI) model releases, capitalizing on the ongoing DeepSeek frenzy. Over the past week, Chinese tech giants and AI startups have unveiled four new models, each claiming to surpass existing global benchmarks. Kimi AI, introduced on Tuesday by Moonshot AI, has reportedly outperformed DeepSeek in mathematics, coding, and real-time web search. Meanwhile, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, made waves with OmniHuman-1, a cutting-edge video model designed for social media, and Goku, a fluid animation model that is said to have surpassed OpenAI’s Sora while operating at a fraction of the hardware costs. Additionally, Alibaba’s Qwen family of models has gained significant recognition, securing top positions on Hugging Face’s leaderboard. Experts refer to these emerging AI models as “China toys,” a term used to describe mass-produced innovations that flood the market at low or no cost, effectively disrupting the dominance of industry leaders.
GenAI Innovation in China
Despite the U.S. ban on supplying AI chips to China, the country has solidified its position as a global leader in artificial intelligence. China now ranks as the second-largest producer of AI models across text, images, video, and audio. Of the 1,328 large language models (LLMs) developed worldwide, 36% originate from China, placing it just behind the United States.
For a long time, China's advancements in AI went largely unnoticed by the global north. However, that changed when a small team of 150 engineers at DeepSeek, led by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng, put China firmly on the AI map.
DeepSeek is not the only major player. Since 2023, leading Chinese tech companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu have launched high-performing AI models, while startups, investors, and government initiatives have played a crucial role in fostering AI research and development. In 2025, China is set to accelerate its AI ambitions even further with a newly announced AI investment fund of 60 billion yuan ($8.2 billion), backed by both the government and private venture capital firms.
Riding the wave of DeepSeek’s growing influence, Chinese AI companies are seizing the opportunity to strengthen their foothold in the market, rolling out cutting-edge models that are rapidly reshaping the global AI landscape.
