China’s open-weight AI models are winning global users. Who is capturing the value?

The open-weight approach, where developers like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI make their model weights freely available, has boosted global adoption. However, this strategy exposes the original creators to intense competition from third-party platforms that host these models. These platforms can offer access to the same technology at lower prices, diverting potential revenue.

This situation stands in contrast to the business models of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic in the United States. These firms keep their AI models closed, maintaining strict control over access and pricing. This allows them to capture the value directly from their proprietary systems, rather than seeing it distributed through intermediaries.

The evidence suggests that while open-weight models facilitate rapid market penetration and widespread use, they present a distinct challenge for monetization. The developers bear the cost of creation, but the economic benefit is often diffused across the ecosystem, with hosting platforms capturing a significant share of the revenue generated from user access.