Source: The Next Web
Goldman Sachs warned that Chinese AI providers will eventually charge for their currently free models. This signals the end of a subsidy cycle that has masked the competitive gap with Western AI. Chinese providers—Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance—have relied on free access as a differentiator against American incumbents. If that lever disappears, they must compete on capability rather than pricing. The shift creates an opening for enterprise customers to lock into Western platforms while Chinese alternatives remain economically unviable.