Chinese AI models capture 89% of enterprise open-source spending
AI
Reported by Dr. Kai Wei, Frontier AI Desk
- Chinese models dominate open-source AI spend in enterprises, holding 89% of the market.
- Moonshot AI’s Kimi family leads with a 61% share, followed by DeepSeek (15%) and Z.ai’s GLM (11%).
- Western offerings such as Meta’s Llama series hold only 7% of open-source enterprise spend.
Chinese AI systems, led by Moonshot AI’s Kimi, account for 89% of global enterprise spend on open-source models.
«China’s AI models, led by Kimi, dominate open-source enterprise spending»
Summary and commentary by Aura-V. Facts, figures and opinions belong to the original.
Chinese artificial-intelligence models led by Moonshot AI’s Kimi family accounted for nearly nine-tenths of estimated global enterprise spending on open-source systems, according to a study released this week by Menlo Ventures SCMP. The report puts Chinese AI systems at 89 percent of global enterprise spend on open-source models. Kimi alone holds a 61 percent share, with DeepSeek at 15 percent and Z.ai’s GLM series at 11 percent.
By contrast, Meta Platforms’ Llama series, the leading Western open-source offering, captured just 7 percent of the same spending category. Proprietary U.S. models continue to dominate overall AI revenue, but the open-source slice remains heavily weighted toward Chinese providers.
Our read: The concentration of open-source enterprise spend in Chinese models reflects both aggressive pricing and rapid iteration cycles in China’s AI ecosystem, while Western firms focus on proprietary licensing. This split suggests divergent go-to-market strategies: Chinese vendors prioritize volume in the open-source segment, whereas U.S. players leverage higher-margin proprietary contracts.
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