Analyst Vivek Arya said aggressive Chinese open-model API pricing, up to 5-350 times cheaper than Western models, "reflect[s] business-model choices, not necessarily reflective of hardware costs." Using Kimi K3 as an example, BofA noted the model still requires approximately 1.4 TB of HBM per serving instance, comparable to OpenAI's smaller open model when adjusted for parameter count, concluding that API pricing "actually scales with total memory weight and active parameters, even for open Chinese LLMs." BofA attributed the pricing advantage of Chinese models largely to architectural efficiency techniques and lower Chinese electricity, labor and land costs, along with potential state-linked capital subsidies. On competition, BofA believes China's CXMT is not a threat to AI memory, as it "primarily addresses the underserved consumer/commodity DRAM segment, not HBM3E/HBM4." Related articlesChinese Open LLMs are no threat to memory demand, BofA saysAirbus stock jumps on new mid-term outlook and buyback planKlarna shares surge 9% on Apple device leasing partnership