Why China is Distributing the Most Advanced Neural Networks for Free
China is actively expanding its influence in the field of artificial intelligence by betting on an open development model. After the free DeepSeek model was released earlier this year, Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun clarified that it isn’t that China has outpaced the U.S., but that open models are beginning to outperform closed ones.
China’s largest tech companies – Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent – are eagerly shifting to open source. This means that anyone can freely use, study, modify, and distribute the source code of AI models. Moreover, the Chinese authorities officially support this approach: DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng was introduced to Prime Minister Li Qian as a representative of the entire AI sector in the country.
Unlike OpenAI, which carefully guards its models, Chinese companies, including DeepSeek, publish their source code with minimal restrictions. Even Meta, which promotes its Llama series of models, maintains restrictions on commercial use. Nevertheless, an increasing number of industry participants are coming to the conclusion that openness is the key to long-term success.
The reason China is betting on open source is not solely ideological. U.S. restrictions prevent Chinese companies from purchasing the most powerful chips from Nvidia, which are necessary for training AI. Therefore, using open models created with access to such resources has become an alternative solution. Until the advent of DeepSeek, almost all Chinese models were modified versions of Llama.
This approach is helping to close the gap with the U.S. more rapidly. In recent weeks, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and DeepSeek have introduced new versions of their open models. According to Bloomberg, Ant Group – the company founded by Jack Ma – has learned to train AI on Huawei’s Chinese chips, achieving results comparable to those using Nvidia processors. If such methods become widely adopted, it will bring China closer to its strategic goal of technological independence.
China is not the only one striving to develop open technologies. In Europe, for example, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently unveiled a plan to invest 200 billion euros in joint AI innovation. French company Mistral AI is one of the flagships of this movement.
China’s generosity in distributing powerful AI models strengthens its soft power. According to Lian from DeepSeek, participation in open source brings respect, not only for the company but for the country as a whole. American economist Tyler Cowen even noted that China is winning not only in technology but also in “overall sentiment” – in how the rest of the world perceives it.
At the same time, the Chinese authorities are promoting open source in other areas, such as the development of chips based on the RISC-V architecture, a free alternative to solutions from Arm, Intel, and AMD. This is strategically important: China’s access to Western technology can be cut off by sanctions from Washington at any moment.
However, the open approach also has its downsides. Companies earn less because they cannot charge for access to their models. For example, OpenAI builds its business on subscription sales and licenses. DeepSeek, on the other hand, can only rely on revenues from integrating its models into other products. Perhaps this is not a problem for Lian – he claims that he prioritizes innovation over profit. But for public companies like Alibaba, which have invested tens of billions of dollars in AI and cloud technologies, low returns could impact stock values.
There are also political risks. Although China currently supports open source, everything could change if these technologies come to play a key role in military or cyber domains. Some DeepSeek employees have already faced travel restrictions, as reported by The Information. Analysts from the American Center for Strategic and International Studies note that the unique training methods developed by DeepSeek could be even more useful to American companies, which possess more powerful computing resources.
It is also important to note that China’s openness does not extend to areas in which it already leads. For example, rare-earth processing technologies are banned from export, and BYD’s plans to build auto plants in Mexico were halted over fears of technology leaks to the U.S. So while China offers free AI models today, how long this will last remains an open question.