How much longer can China afford cheap AI?
There are now nearly 1,000 large-language models on offer in China.
China's ultra-cheap artificial intelligence technology is posing a significant challenge to the financial viability of Silicon Valley companies. However, this same economic pressure is also threatening the sustainability of China's own AI industry. DeepSeek, a prominent player in the sector, recently announced increased pricing for its most recent V4-Pro and V4-Flash models.
The new pricing structure, which includes both peak and off-peak access, represents a substantial hike in costs. The company's decision to raise prices comes after a prolonged period of intense competition to develop cutting-edge AI models. Despite making considerable advancements over the past year and a half, Chinese firms have struggled to convince businesses and customers to allocate budgets for these technologies.
The challenge now lies in finding a sustainable pricing model that can support the continued development and deployment of AI solutions.
Written by urgent.news from Japan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
