WEB DESK: Chinese-developed open-source artificial intelligence models now represent close to 30% of all global AI usage, according to a recent report by OpenRouter, a third-party aggregator of AI models, in collaboration with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The study also revealed that prompts in Chinese rank second in token volume, trailing only behind English.
The surge in adoption of open-source large language models (LLMs) this year has been largely driven by Chinese systems, including notable models like Alibaba Group’s Qwen series, DeepSeek’s V3, and Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2. While chat-based models such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5 continue to dominate with a 70% share worldwide, Chinese models have rapidly increased their presence.
Starting from a modest 1.2% share in late 2024, Chinese open-source models expanded to nearly 30% within a few months in 2025, based on OpenRouter’s analysis of 100 trillion tokens units of data processed during AI training and operation. On average, Chinese models contributed about 13% of weekly token volume this year, with growth accelerating particularly in the latter half of 2025. Their usage has now approached levels comparable to AI models from other regions, which account for approximately 13.7%, the report noted.“China has established itself as a formidable player in AI development, not only through domestic demand but also via the creation of globally competitive models,” the report emphasized.
Despite restrictions imposed by the U.S. on Chinese firms’ access to advanced GPUs from Nvidia and AMD, China has made remarkable progress in AI innovation. The rapid iteration cycles and frequent releases of models like Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen and DeepSeek’s offerings have enabled developers to quickly ramp up their projects and workloads.
As Chinese open-source models gain recognition for their efficiency and cost-effectiveness, the Chinese language has become the second most popular prompt language worldwide, accounting for nearly 5% of all requests second only to English. This is a significant increase compared to China’s internet presence, where Chinese accounts for roughly 1.1% of overall online content.
In terms of global share in LLM tokens, China ranks fourth behind the U.S., Singapore, and Germany. The open-source AI landscape has evolved from a market dominated by DeepSeek in December 2024 to a more fragmented environment by late 2025, with multiple players such as Alibaba’s Qwen and Moonshot AI’s Kimi competing for dominance. No single model now holds more than a 25% share, reflecting increased diversity and competition in the global AI ecosystem.
