Why a Free Chinese AI Model Sent Shivers Through Wall Street

You have likely heard that building artificial intelligence requires billions of dollars, custom microchips, and massive data centers. For a long time, the consensus was that only a handful of wealthy Silicon Valley giants could afford to build the smartest models. This week, that assumption was turned upside down.

When a Chinese startup named Moonshot AI released its Kimi K3 model, the shockwaves were felt not in the research labs of Beijing, but on the trading floors of New York.