China's 'open' AI is a terrible business, and nothing like open-source software

Chinese AI labs releasing open-weight models (Zhipu, MiniMax, Moonshot) are losing hundreds of millions annually despite technical breakthroughs, because inference compute flows to cloud providers rather than model creators, inverting the economics of open-source software.

This Wire brief sits within Fusion42's coverage of AI Frontier Models. Wire is Fusion42's founder-focused intelligence feed: each story is connected to the funds and startups it names — every one with a live profile on Raise or Scout — so founders can follow the capital and the momentum behind the headline rather than just the headline itself. Wire analysis is one of the live surfaces Arthur reasons over.