Every few months, an AI lab in China that most people in the U.S. have never heard of releases an AI model that upends conventional wisdom about the cost of training and running cutting-edge AI. In January,

The open-source M1 boasts a record-breaking context window and lean training budget, promising enterprise-grade reasoning without hyperscaler resources — and reshaping the AI playing field.

Shanghai-based MiniMax has launched its M1 model, a powerful and efficient open-weight AI that directly challenges rival DeepSeek on performance, cost, and its "true open-source" Apache 2.0 license, escalating the AI competition within China.