A new version of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s flagship AI model has become the cheapest well-known AI model to run in benchmark tests, according to research firm Artificial Analysis. DeepSeek, which sources say is preparing for a possible initial public offering (IPO), officially launched its V4-Flash model on Friday. Tokens are small units of data used to measure how much an AI model processes and generates. Meanwhile, on Monday, Alibaba introduced its biggest and most advanced AI model to date, called Qwen3.8-Max. The company said the model is close in size to a competing AI model launched by Chinese startup Moonshot AI last month.