China's Six AI Tigers: Who They Are and What They Do
DeepSeek shot to international fame in early 2025 when it released a powerful open-source large language model (LLM). Despite chip restrictions, it surprised everyone with its ability to deliver high-quality output using minimal energy. But DeepSeek wasn’t alone.
There were the “Six Tigers” (see image below) — six participants in a single technological race: to establish domestic LLM leadership to enable Chinese governments, enterprises, and consumers retain access to advanced generative intelligence without geopolitical dependency on the US.
You’ll notice DeepSeek is absent from the Six Tigers. This isn’t due to technological inferiority. The label was historically tied to a specific cohort of startups sharing similar venture capital lineage, commercialization ambitions, and positioning within China’s domestic LLM market.
DeepSeek’s non-traditional origins (it’s a hedge fund spinoff), open-model strategy, and research-oriented approach place it outside this framework. While its models have influenced competitive thinking across the sector, DeepSeek doesn’t conform to the VC-backed, platform-driven narrative that defined the Six Tigers as a group.
Looking at the LLM Leaderboard, DeepSeek ranks 12th as of January 14, 2026. Z.ai is the highest-ranking Chinese LLM in 9th place. Kimi by Moonshot and MiniMax are within the top 20. Note: such ranking change dynamically as new models attempt to outwit one another.
Last week, two of the Six Tigers—Z.ai and MiniMax—started trading as public companies in Hong Kong. That’s earlier than the supposedly imminent OpenAI IPO, which won’t happen until late 2026 or even 2027.
Being first to public markets doesn’t mean superiority in models. But the rest of the world is watching the AI race between the US and China closely. Early opportunities to invest in these LLM companies may be attractive to some. And capital raised can fund more R&D, advancing their models further.
Even at this early stage, we’re seeing some Tigers falter. We may be left with just three or four in no time. Baichuan AI and 01.AI are already facing funding challenges to keep their dreams alive.
Let’s look at each Tiger in more detail:
