Chinese AI labs might flip closed source soon — here's the play:
They partner with neoclouds (Together, Venice, OpenRouter) + Microsoft/Azure to license their latest models privately. No public weights.
The setup:
• Chinese labs get paid (they need liquidity)
• Microsoft fine-tunes for enterprise clients, keeps the weights locked
• Neoclouds serve the models, split revenue, never touch weights
• Enterprises save vs OpenAI/Anthropic and get custom tuning
Everyone wins except open source maxis.
This isn't speculation — it's the rational endgame when Chinese labs burn cash and Western hyperscalers need differentiation.
Watch who starts offering "exclusive Chinese foundation models" in H2 2025.
They partner with neoclouds (Together, Venice, OpenRouter) + Microsoft/Azure to license their latest models privately. No public weights.
The setup:
• Chinese labs get paid (they need liquidity)
• Microsoft fine-tunes for enterprise clients, keeps the weights locked
• Neoclouds serve the models, split revenue, never touch weights
• Enterprises save vs OpenAI/Anthropic and get custom tuning
Everyone wins except open source maxis.
This isn't speculation — it's the rational endgame when Chinese labs burn cash and Western hyperscalers need differentiation.
Watch who starts offering "exclusive Chinese foundation models" in H2 2025.