Chinese AI models dominate OpenRouter’s US token consumption. It can now guarantee that traffic stays entirely in the US.
Everyone knows the open-weight model pitch by now: companies can download the weights, customize them, run them on infrastructure of The post Chinese AI models dominate OpenRouter’s US token consumption. It can now guarantee that traffic stays entirely in the US. appeared first on The New Stack .
OpenRouter, an AI model marketplace, has introduced US in-region routing to ensure that requests sent through its US endpoint are processed and served entirely within the country. This move comes as Chinese open-weight models dominate the market, accounting for around 60% of tokens consumed by US-originating requests. The feature is an addition to the company's existing European in-region routing, which has been available since October 2025.
OpenRouter, founded in early 2023 by former OpenSea CTO Alex Atallah, serves as an interface to the AI model market, allowing developers to switch between hundreds of models from various providers via a single API. The company maintains a list of models eligible for US in-region routing, including proprietary frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic and open-weight models from major Chinese labs like Baseten, Fireworks, and Azure.
This feature aims to provide companies with data residency requirements a guarantee that their requests are processed in the US without having to manage their own deployments.
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