Chinese startup DeepSeek has released its largest AI model to date, a 685-billion-parameter model that industry observers say could intensify competition with US players.
The model, called DeepSeek V3.1, was made available on the open-source platform Hugging Face this week with little publicity. Despite the quiet rollout, early benchmark results reportedly suggest the model performs on par with proprietary offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic.
The launch could broaden access to advanced AI capabilities while raising new questions about the global balance of technological power between China and the US. For enterprise IT leaders, the release raises fresh questions about whether open-source Chinese models could reshape procurement strategies that have long centered on US vendors.
The release follows OpenAI’s decision earlier this month to publish its first open-weight models since GPT-2, positioned as offering strong performance at lower cost. Chief Executive Sam Altman told CNBC that rising competition from Chinese open-source models, including those from DeepSeek, influenced the move.