US companies pivot to low-cost Chinese AI models, raising IPO valuation risks for OpenAI and Anthropic
AI Market Summary
US enterprises are rapidly substituting cheaper Chinese foundation models for OpenAI/Anthropic APIs, compressing pricing power and weakening monetization ahead of potential IPOs. Reported token-share data (Chinese models at 57% of US OpenRouter usage in a July week) and named adopters (e.g., Coinbase, DoorDash, Airbnb) underscore demand shifting to "good-enough" models. This intensifies competitive pressure across the AI stack and raises valuation risk for US frontier labs.
Impact level
● High
Affected assets
NCSKOPENAI2USD/USDT+1.54%
AI Insight · NCSKOPENAI2USD/USDTAI Insight
▼ Bearish
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US companies are increasingly switching from OpenAI and Anthropic’s higher-priced API services to cheaper Chinese large language models such as Z.AI’s GLM-5.2 and Moonshot’s Kimi K3. In a single week in July, Chinese models accounted for 57% of the tokens consumed by US firms on OpenRouter, and companies including Coinbase, DoorDash, Airbnb and Cursor have publicly said they use them. The shift is pressuring OpenAI and Anthropic’s ability to monetize, and could pose material downside risk to their IPO valuations, The Wall Street Journal reported.
