Chinese technology giant Alibaba plans to ask major users of the next version of its Qwen open-source AI model for a share of revenue they make from the offering, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans.

Revenue-Sharing Deals

Alibaba’s Qwen3.8-Max model is an open-source, open-weight model, meaning that the underlying learned settings that allow developers to run or adapt the system are available for download. The company plans to implement a measure similar to Moonshot’s Kimi K3, which requires anyone offering the model for sale as a service and generating more than $20 million in annual sales to work out a commercial agreement with Moonshot.

Deals under which U.S. firms share revenue generated by Chinese models with the Chinese AI labs that created them are taking shape. Chinese AI firms are following a common playbook from Silicon Valley: Offer software at low or zero cost to start, charging for heavy commercial use and additional services.

Companies like DigitalOcean Holdings, which offers Kimi K3 and other Chinese models, have commercial agreements with Moonshot. The CEO of DigitalOcean Holdings, Paddy Srinivasan, confirmed that his company has a commercial agreement with Moonshot but declined to discuss specifics.

The Chinese AI firms are converging on a business model as they push to take market share from their U.S. rivals. Open-source AI is expanding, with U.S. firms joining the fray. Thinking Machines Lab, a San Francisco-based AI startup, last month released its first open-source model and is widely expected to follow with more powerful ones.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.