Americans increasingly adopt Chinese AI tools despite US trade restrictions
Even with new US trade restrictions, more Americans are choosing Chinese AI tools for their daily tasks.
They're faster and cheaper: Mozilla's Raffi Krikorian, for example, swapped out Anthropic's Claude Fable for Moonshot's Kimi K3 just because it gets things done quicker.
He also used Z.ai's GLM-5.2 to keep his calendar and emails organized.
Kimi downloads jump 387% in US.
It's not just individuals making the switch; big companies like Coinbase are using Chinese AI to cut costs too.
Over the past month, the five most popular AI models on OpenRouter were from China, with Kimi downloads in the United States alone jumping 387% after launch.
Experts say these affordable options could become even more popular "due to their strong performance at much lower prices," so expect to see more people relying on them despite all the political drama.