Low prices win users, but Chinese AI teams now earn $2.6 billion annually

Cheap and open-weight models first won users for Chinese AI teams. Now, those users and enterprise deployments are translating into revenue.

Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das, drawing from financial reports, media coverage, and market sources, estimates that Zhipu AI, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Kling, and MiniMax together have an annualized revenue of about $2.6 billion.

Zhipu AI leads with roughly $1 billion. DeepSeek and Kling each bring in around $500 million, MiniMax about $400 million, and Moonshot AI approximately $200 million. Four of the five teams have cracked the global top 25 in AI company revenue. The competitiveness of Chinese models is extending from low prices and open weights to APIs, subscriptions, enterprise deployments, and cloud services.