A surge in usage of Chinese artificial intelligence models, led by a 799% weekly jump in Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Hy3 preview, has pushed China ahead of the United States in a key metric for AI adoption. For the week ending May 3, Chinese large language models were called 7.942 trillion times, an 81.7% increase from the prior week, while U.S. models saw a 34.6% decline to 3.258 trillion, according to data from OpenRouter.
"The rapid ascent of models like Tencent's Hy3 and Kimi K2.6 demonstrates a significant shift in the global AI landscape," said a technology analyst at a major investment bank. "This is no longer a story about China catching up; it's about China taking the lead in key areas of adoption and usage."
The global weekly call volume for AI large models grew for a second consecutive week, rising 8.6% to 23.9 trillion tokens. Tencent’s Hy3 preview model alone accounted for 3.03 trillion tokens, vaulting it to the top of the global rankings. Kimi K2.6, another Chinese model, placed second with a 15% week-over-week increase. In contrast, Claude Sonnet 4.6, a leading U.S. model, saw its usage dip 1% to 1.35 trillion tokens, ranking third.
This surge in usage is a bullish indicator for China's domestic AI champions like Tencent and could translate into a larger share of the rapidly growing market for AI services. The data suggests that Chinese firms are not only developing powerful models but are also achieving rapid, large-scale adoption. For U.S. competitors, this intensifies the pressure to innovate and accelerate their own growth trajectories to avoid ceding more ground in the global AI race.
Further cementing China's growing influence, two other domestic models featured prominently in the top ten rankings. DeepSeek-V4-Flash made a remarkable debut, landing at the ninth spot with 704 billion weekly calls, a 344% increase. MiniMax M2.7, from MINIMAX-W, held the eighth position with 729 billion calls, despite a slight 8% decline from the previous week.
The strong showing of multiple Chinese models in the top ten for call volume highlights the country's deep and increasingly competitive AI ecosystem. While Tencent's massive jump grabs the headlines, the presence of Kimi, DeepSeek, and MiniMax demonstrates a breadth of successful deployments. This multi-pronged success challenges the narrative of a U.S.-dominated AI field and points to a future of more intense, multipolar competition. The development has significant implications for companies like Tencent (00700.HK) and MINIMAX-W (00100.HK), whose stock performance will be closely watched as they vie for a larger piece of the global AI market.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
