More companies are anticipated to join Alibaba and Moonshot in releasing models, as the festival serves as a crucial time to enhance exposure.
China’s frontier artificial intelligencelabs are concluding the lunar year with a strong finish, striving to launch a range of new AI models in the final weeks of the Year of the Snake as the nation prepares to welcome the Year of the Horse.
Beijing-based Zhipu AI and Shanghai-quartered MiniMax, which recently made their stock market debut in Hong Kong, are expected to be the next to upgrade their core AI systems with comprehensive improvements, according to individuals aware of their development strategies.
Zhipu AI, known as Z.ai globally, is scheduled to release the fifth version of its main GLM model series, GLM-5, within the next two weeks, ahead of the Lunar New Year which begins on February 15.
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Two sources indicated that GLM-5 was anticipated to feature extensive and substantial advancements in creative writing, programming, logical thinking, and autonomous functionality.
Meanwhile MiniMaxwill launch its M2.2 – a small upgrade to the M2.1 version featuring improvements tailored for coding tasks – prior to the holiday, according to sources who asked to remain unnamed as they were not permitted to communicate with the press.
Zhipu AI did not promptly respond to a request for statement. MiniMax chose not to provide any comment.
Alibaba Group Holding and Moonshot AI started the recent surgeof launches featuring their Qwen3-Max-Thinking and Kimi 2.5 models from last week. Alibaba holds the South China Morning Post.
Chinese companies appeared to be adhering to a trend initiated by an AI startup based in HangzhouDeepSeekwhen it launched its high-performance and affordable V3 and R1 models ahead of Lunar New Year last year. The launch caused a big reaction in the global technology sector as China was celebrating the festival.
Although there was a lot of talk that its upcoming release would be around this Lunar New Year, DeepSeek has remained quiet about its plans and is not anticipated to launch a significant update, as it did the previous year, according to a source.
DeepSeek was expected to release a small update to its V3 model series, which had been undergoing improvements all through 2025, according to the source.
The next major model from the company was anticipated to be a trillion-parameter foundational model, as reported by the source. The expansion of the model’s size had caused training to become more complex and pushed back its launch date, the source mentioned, noting that Moonshot AI’s Kimi 2.5 would continue to be the most sophisticated open-source release until a new version surpasses it.
DeepSeek did not provide a statement in response to the inquiry.
The concept of parameters relates to the variables found within an AI system while it is being trained and plays a crucial role in determining the complexity and performance of the AI model.
A Moonshot project backed by Alibaba, Kimi 2.5, has been launched to widespread international praise, with benchmark tests indicating that it has elevated China’s open-source AI capabilities.more similar to leading US closed-source systems than ever before.
The model is currently placed fifth on the Intelligence Index by consultancy Artificial Analysis, coming after the leading models from US laboratories. It is the sole open-source model and the only Chinese model within the top five.
More Chinese technology firms are aiming to benefit from the holiday season, a crucial time for product exposure and gaining users since the entire nation is off work.
China’s leading technology companies are investing billions to attract users for their AI chatbot applications. The social media and gaming firm Tencent stated that its Yuanbao chatbot will distribute 1 billion yuan (US$144 million) in digital red envelopes, a modern version of the traditional money-filled packets given for good fortune during festivals. Baidu is also offering 500 million yuan through its Wenxin app. Alibaba revealed a 3 billion yuan initiative to promote its Qwen chatbot application on Monday.
Further reporting by Vincent Chow
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This piece was first published in the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), a top news outlet covering China and Asia.
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