China’s Rapid Rise in AI China is making notable strides in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the development of large language models (LLMs). These models, including DeepSeek-V3, Qwen 2.5-Max, and Doubao 1.5 Pro, are highly capable of handling tasks such as coding, natural language processing, and multimodal input interpretation. In this guide, we explore six of the top LLMs from China that are gaining international attention for their efficiency and intelligence.

1. DeepSeek-V3 Developer: Liang Wenfeng

Founded: 2024

DeepSeek-V3 features a powerful 671 billion-parameter architecture optimized with Mixture-of-Experts (MoE), activating only 37 billion parameters per input for efficiency. It excels in code generation, math, and logical reasoning.

Key Features:

• Mixture-of-Experts (MoE): Efficient use of parameters.
• Multi-Head Latent Attention: Better memory use and accurate outputs.
• Extended Context Length: Handles up to 128,000 tokens.
• Multi-Token Prediction: Parallel token generation speeds up responses by 40%.

Cost Efficiency: With a training cost of around $5.6 million, DeepSeek-V3 is more affordable than many of its global counterparts.

Performance:

• MMLU: 88.5
• DROP: 91.6
• Codeforces: 51.6
• MATH-500: 90.2

2. Qwen 2.5-Max Developer: Alibaba Cloud

Founded: 2025

Qwen 2.5-Max combines a powerful architecture with cost efficiency, making it a strong competitor to global LLMs. It supports text, audio, and video understanding.

Key Features:

• MoE Architecture: Reduces computational cost by 30%.
• Massive Training Data: Trained on 20 trillion tokens.
• 128K Token Context Window: Excellent for document-heavy tasks.
• Multimodal Capabilities: Understands images and audio inputs.

Cost Efficiency: At $0.38 per million tokens, it's cheaper than GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Performance:

• Arena-Hard: 89.4
• MMLU-Pro: 76.1
• LiveCodeBench: 92.7
• LiveBench: 62.2

3. Doubao 1.5 Pro Developer: ByteDance

Founded: 2025

Doubao 1.5 Pro is designed for advanced problem-solving and extended input processing, leveraging RL and a sparse MoE system.

Key Features:

• Sparse MoE: Lowers computational cost.
• Multimodal Inputs: Supports text, vision, and speech.
• Advanced Reasoning: Trained using reinforcement learning.
• Extended Context: Processes up to 256,000 tokens.

Cost Efficiency: Cheaper than DeepSeek and OpenAI models, using low-end chip support.

Performance:

• DROP: 93.0
• BBH: 91.6
• CMMLU: 90.9
• C-Eval: 91.8
• IFEVal: 89.5

4. Kimi k1.5 Developer: Moonshot AI

Founded: 2025

Kimi k1.5 specializes in long-context reasoning and multimodal understanding. It is ideal for analyzing visual data, charts, and documents.

Key Features:

• 128K Token Context: Ideal for long-form content.
• Policy Optimization: Uses mirror descent.
• Multimodal Integration: Understands text and visual content.
• Chain of Thought (CoT): Enhances logical reasoning.
• Parallel Computing: Boosts processing speed.

Cost Efficiency: Low development costs make it a competitive option.

Performance: Outperforms GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet 3.5 in:

• MATH-500
• AIME 2024
• LiveCodeBench

5. GLM-4 Plus (ChatGLM) Developer: Zhipu AI

Founded: 2024

GLM-4 Plus supports advanced reasoning, multi-language interaction, and image generation.

Key Features:

• Conversational Fluency: Supports multi-round dialogues.
• Tool Use: Can execute code and perform web browsing.
• Multilingual: Supports 26 languages.
• Extended Context: Handles up to 1 million tokens.
• Image Understanding: Processes images at 1120x1120 resolution.

Cost Efficiency:

• Open-source and free.
• Trains on smaller hardware (6GB GPU).
• 42% faster than older models.

Performance:

• AlignBench: 99%-104% efficiency vs GPT-4o and Claude 3.5
• MMLU and MATH: Comparable to top-tier models

Conclusion: China’s Global AI Impact These six Chinese LLMs showcase the country’s innovation in AI, offering competitive, cost-effective, and efficient alternatives to Western models like GPT-4o. With continued advancements in logic, reasoning, and multimodal capabilities, China is solidifying its position as a global AI leader.