AI companies used to measure themselves against industry leader OpenAI. No more. Now that China’s DeepSeek has emerged as the frontrunner, it’s become the one to beat.

On Monday, DeepSeek turned the AI industry on its head, causing billions of dollars in losses on Wall Street while raising questions about how efficient some U.S. startups—and venture capital— actually are.

Now, two new AI powerhouses have entered the ring: The Allen Institute for AI in Seattle and Alibaba in China; both claim their models are on a par with or better than DeepSeek V3.

The Allen Institute for AI, a U.S.-based research organization known