China overtakes US in open AI model downloads
China just pulled ahead of the US in global downloads of open AI models, according to a new MIT and Hugging Face report.
Last year, Chinese-developed models made up 17% of worldwide downloads—edging past big American names like Google and OpenAI at 15.8%.
It's a clear sign that China's influence in the AI world is growing fast.
Why it matters: Open vs closed approaches
The report points out that China and the US are taking different routes with AI.
Chinese companies like DeepSeek and Alibaba Cloud are rolling out flexible, open-source models that anyone can use or tweak, making them super accessible—especially for developers around the world.
Meanwhile, most American firms stick to closed systems with limited access.
Even with US chip restrictions, Chinese teams are finding clever ways to make their models efficient enough to run on everyday devices.