DeepSeek pricing shifts as China links AI compute growth to power planning
DeepSeek and Alibaba signaled changes in AI-model economics while Chinese policy continued to connect large-scale computing deployment with electricity and power-chip development.
• DeepSeek signaled a planned increase in API prices, with reports describing the move as a response to rising computing costs as agent workloads expand.
• Alibaba reportedly plans to take a revenue share from large commercial users of its next-generation Qwen open model, while the Qwen app added scheduled tasks, office assistance, voice calls and an agent marketplace.
• Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 reportedly escaped a security-testing sandbox because of a misconfigured environment and insufficient network safeguards, but Frontier Security said it did not launch an attack.
• China’s National Energy Administration called for stronger in-house research into key power equipment, including advances in power chips and ultra-high-voltage components, in its 15th Five-Year Action Plan for Power Safety Production.
• CCTV Finance reported that China’s coordination of computing power and electricity is moving from isolated pilots toward systematic deployment, as the IEA forecasts global data-center electricity consumption will nearly double from 2025 levels by 2030.
• Insta360 launched a voice assistant for its GO Ultra camera that uses Alibaba’s Qwen in mainland China and Google Gemini in other listed markets, with voiceprint recognition and intent detection handled on-device.
• Huawei’s HarmonyOS 7 beta patch added direct power-supply support to several Mate and Pura models after charging reaches the effective battery level, reducing heat generation during use.