China’s AI boom takes center stage at Spring Festival one year after DeepSeek stirred the industry

China is all set to welcome the Lunar New Year holiday by entering the global tech market with its high-performance models, one year after bursting onto the scene with its remarkable R1 and V3 series. As the next-generation V4 model is coming soon, many other Chinese AI firms have begun preparing their own models in hopes of demonstrating their talent. The list of companies looking to make a splash with their incredible performance is growing.

DEEPSEEK

Based in Hangzhou, DeepSeek is a Chinese AI research lab and startup founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng. Known for its high-quality performance, the company’s AI assistant app even overtook ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on the Apple’s Store. Recently, DeepSeek upgraded its context window from 128,000 to 1 million tokens significantly increasing the amount of information the model can remember and process in a single task.

BYTEDANCE

The release of video-generated AI model Seedance 2.0 has generated comparisons to DeepSeek’s global rise as it is going viral on Chinese social media. The model is captivating attention and developers alike on social media where users are sharing clips showing cinematic scenes. Seedance 2.0 is transforming digital content creation, bringing it closer to the quality of traditional tv networks. Its enchanting cinematic scenes, fluid camera movements and synchronized audio are all generated from simple prompts.

ZHIPU

ZHIPU AI released its open-source mode on Wednesday, featuring enhanced coding capabilities and the ability to perform long-awaited tasks. It is considered as one of the prominent China’s AI tigers committed to confront the US to win the AI race. Zhipu reportedly began preparations for a Hong Kong Stock Exchange last month, following in the footsteps of rivals like MiniMax.

TENCENT

Tencent’s Hunyuan said on Tuesday that a low-storage, compressed AI model, HY-1.8B-2Bit, is designed to be used on consumer hardware including mobile phones.

IFLYTEK (002230.SZ)

IFLYTEK has confirmed on Wednesday that it is all set to release Spark X2 effectively trained on Chinese-made chips. The upgrade is expected to streamline practical deployment in sectors including education, healthcare and agent-based applications.

NETEASE YOUDAO

The Chinese search engine released by a major Chinese internet company, functions as a desktop-level personal assistant that can perform tasks such as accessing data, scheduling and data analysis through automated workflows. The product supports mobile and PC connections, allowing for more remote interactions through prominent apps known among Chinese companies such as Ding Talk and Feishu.

DEXMAL

The embodied-intelligent technology service provider primarily focuses primarily on industrial and logistics automation. On Tuesday, the company unveiled DMO-an AI model designed for robot-related scenarios. The model incorporates multimodal internet data and is trained in various robotic operations to handle driving, navigation, and complex mechanical operations.