The Number
- z-ai/glm-5.2:free and minimax/minimax-m3:free both list at $0/MTok prompt and completion on OpenRouter, as of 2026-08-27.
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash off-peak input runs $0.22/MTok cache-miss, half its peak rate, per DeepSeek's pricing docs on 2026-08-27.
- Qwen3.8-Flash lists at 1 yuan/M input, 3 yuan/M output on the Qwen platform, per 量子位 on 2026-08-27.
Top of the Fold
- Zhipu ships and open-sources GLM-5.3-Flash (320B-A18B), its first native multimodal model, under MIT with weights on Hugging Face, per 智东西.
- Zhipu confirms GLM-5.3-Flash runs on 100,000 domestic AI chips via SenseTime's infrastructure, tying the launch to a Chinese compute stack, per 雷峰网 (company-stated).
- Alibaba open-sources Qwen3.8-Flash-Next at 125B with 6B active per token, a preview built on the next-gen Qwen4 architecture, per 智东西.
- ByteDance releases 豆包工作, a Doubao agent for office workflows integrated with Feishu, offering a 30-day free trial, per 智东西.
Untranslated
- The anonymous Ox Alpha model that topped OpenRouter for a day and ended DeepSeek's 56-day run was claimed by Zhipu as GLM-5.3-Flash, after a Google researcher's hint that it was Gemini drew open mockery, per 夕小瑶科技说 (circulating).
- 夕小瑶's read is that Zhipu undercut DeepSeek's price line while priced near 1/40 of Claude Opus 4.8, but the 62T-token burn during its stealth run is the number worth watching, one named view.
- TokenRhythm (基元律动) raises tens of millions of dollars and launches a "Chinese OpenRouter" model-routing layer, per 量子位.
- MiniMax reports ARR up 500% and token volume up 2000%, its framing of the agent boom, per 量子位 (company-stated).
- Otherwise quiet across the Chinese community overnight.
The Backstory
- Kuailun Xing's world model GeWu scored 69.58 to win the image-quality track and take second overall on the embodied WorldArena 2.0 leaderboard, one of 77 entries, per 雷峰网 (company-stated).
The Kicker
- A 2003-born cross-border seller shelved his e-commerce hustle to build a children's AI magnifying glass that names bugs aloud instead of teaching letters, now at a 50M-yuan valuation, per 雷峰网.
