Western AI is currently a financial black hole, with constant VC cash needed to keep the lights on alongside a product the public isnt willing to pay for.

Whilst LLMs are more advanced, we've been trained to expect 'AI' to come free with a product, think Siri or Alexa.

If the public aren't going to pay for it and a Chinese company can build something good enough for $6m, why should VC money continue to burn itself with no hope of a return?

Microsoft are clearly waiting for OpenAI's stock to tank so they can buy the pieces and build an on-device LLM from the shattered remains directly into windows with $0 running costs.