Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek

An elite group of companies known as the "Six Tigers"--Stepfun, Zhipu, Minimax, Moonshot, 01.AI, and Baichuan--are generally considered to be at the forefront of China's AI sector. But alongside them, research-focused firms like DeepSeek and ModelBest continue to grow in influence. Some, such as Minimax and Moonshot, are giving up on costly foundational model training to hone in on building consumer-facing applications on top of others' models. Others, like Stepfun and Infinigence AI, are doubling down on research, driven in part by US semiconductor restrictions. We have identified these four Chinese AI companies as the ones to watch.