How China split Silicon Valley over AI

The emergence of high-performing, low-cost open-weight AI models from Chinese firms like Moonshot AI is causing a major split in Silicon Valley. This has driven a pro-open-weight alliance led by Nvidia against closed-model incumbents, as US startups increasingly adopt cheaper Chinese models, which now account for over 45% of usage on platforms like OpenRouter.

This Wire brief sits within Fusion42's coverage of AI & ML, and 11 sources have reported it between 18 Jul 2026 and 5 Aug 2026.