{
  "id": 15081839,
  "title": "Open-weight models win hearts, minds, and wallets",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/open-weight-models-win-hearts-minds-and-wallets-15081839",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-16T23:07:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register Science",
    "slug": "the-register-science",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/10/17/open-weight-models-win-hearts-minds-and-wallets/5303704"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Open-weight models have surged in popularity, accounting for a majority of Vercel's AI Gateway token volume for the first time in August. Their share of spending has quadrupled in the past three months, jumping from one in twenty gateway dollars in June to nearly one in four in September. AI Gateway acts as an intermediary, allowing customers to purchase tokens from various AI providers through a unified interface, but it doesn't process usage from other gateways or direct vendor access. Despite a 13-fold increase in gateway spending since December 2025, the average token price dropped by 47 percent. Open-weight models like TypeSafe AI's Jev quickly gained traction, reaching 35 percent of paid teams in just 14 days, although its limited usage resulted in minimal spending. Chinese AI providers have also gained ground, with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash becoming the third most popular model in September, capturing 4.19 percent of spending. US-based models from Anthropic and OpenAI still dominate spending, with Claude Opus 5.5 leading at 11.03 percent. However, Chinese AI models have seen increased popularity, with DeepSeek's 58 percent token share and 6.6 percent spending, while Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 captured 13.2 percent of spending. Restrictions on open-weight models could impact US businesses relying on these models, and Chinese authorities' potential export control measures could further complicate the market.",
  "summary": "They handle 71.5% of Vercel gateway tokens and nearly a quarter of estimated spending",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register",
        "title": "Open-weight models win hearts, minds, and wallets",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/open-weight-models-win-hearts-minds-and-wallets",
        "published": "2026-10-16T23:07:04.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}