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Moonshot AI and Alibaba Release New Models Priced Below Leading US Systems
Moonshot AI released Kimi K3 around July 17, claiming it trails only OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol and Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5. Alibaba previewed Qwen3.8 days later. Both firms plan open-weight releases at lower prices than leading US models.
Jul 21, 7:43 AM·1m read1 source
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Moonshot AI unveiled its Kimi K3 model on or around July 17. The company stated that the model outperforms nearly every US system and trails only OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol and Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5. It priced Kimi K3 at $15 per million output tokens, compared with roughly $30 for GPT-5.6 Sol and $50 for Claude Fable 5.
Demand overwhelmed the service after launch, prompting Moonshot AI to pause new subscriptions temporarily. The Verge reported that six of the top 10 AI tools on OpenRouter’s leaderboard by token consumption and benchmarks are Chinese. Alibaba released a preview of its Qwen3.
The company described Qwen3.8 as one of the most powerful models available today and second only to Claude Fable 5. Both Moonshot AI and Alibaba plan to release their models as open weight. The Verge reported that US companies are increasingly turning to Chinese AI tools as domestic provider costs surge.
Some US startups are reportedly turning to cheaper Chinese models. Reports indicate Kimi K3 identified and fixed cyber vulnerabilities that OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Fable would not touch due to safety guardrails. In June 2026, Z.ai claimed its GLM-5.2 model could match Anthropic’s Mythos on cybersecurity tasks.
People visited the Kimi booth at the World AI Conference in Shanghai on July 20.
