These two words—"open source"—may need to be reinterpreted in the future.
Reuters reports today that Alibaba is preparing to add a commercial clause to the next version of its open-source Qwen model. Large commercial customers would share revenue, and the rules are expected to be implemented as early as next week. How much would be shared is still being negotiated, and the percentage has not been set.
This approach is not Alibaba’s invention. Last month, Moonshot released Kimi K3. In its license agreement, there was a clause stating that companies that use the model to provide external services or have annual sales exceeding $20 million must return and sign a separate commercial agreement. Insiders say the maximum cut could be up to 30%.
Alibaba’s past pricing logic was simple: if the model was hosted on its own cloud, you paid. If customers moved it back to run in their own data centers, there was essentially no charge. Now, that line is being pushed upward.
Google
$GOOGL and OpenAI have both been closed source, with weights not even provided for download. After this batch of open-source models from China has caught up in capability, their business models have started to tighten as well. The CEO of a U.S. cloud service provider confirmed that they have already signed a commercial agreement, saying it is a proven freemium model.
Model weights can still be downloaded, and the code can still be modified. The day it really earns money, the bill will show up on time.
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