Chinese AI labs ranked: Alibaba, Moonshot, Z.ai, DeepSeek
Four of the ten labs on the scoreboard are based in China: Alibaba's Qwen team and DeepSeek in Hangzhou, and Moonshot AI (Kimi) and Z.ai (Zhipu) in Beijing. All four sit in the middle and lower half of the board, between #5 and #9, and within 8 points of each other.
The standings, 22 Oct 2026
| Overall rank | Lab | Score | Coverage | Arena rank (score) | AA Index (position) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Alibaba (Qwen) | 50.5 | 4/5 | 24 (1482) | 45.4 (28th) |
| 7 | Moonshot AI (Kimi) | 46.3 | 5/5 | 18 (1487) | 43.6 (33rd) |
| 8 | Z.ai (Zhipu) | 44.3 | 3/5 | 28 (1479) | 44.8 (30th) |
| 9 | DeepSeek | 42.6 | 5/5 | 38 (1475) | 45.1 (29th) |
Arena ranks are from the text leaderboard as of 15 Oct 2026. The Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index values were fetched on 22 Oct 2026.
Best models
- Alibaba: Qwen3.8-Max on Arena; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) on Artificial Analysis
- Moonshot AI: Kimi K3 (Max) on both
- Z.ai: GLM-5.3 (Max) on both
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash (Max) on Arena; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) on Artificial Analysis
Moonshot's Kimi K3 has the best Arena rank of the four (18th). On the Artificial Analysis index the four are within 1.8 points of each other, from 43.6 to 45.4. For scale, the top tracked lab on that index, Anthropic, scores 57.6.
Money
| Lab | Revenue | Valuation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba | $7.296B | n/a | AI-related product revenue, June quarter x 4, a parent-company metric |
| Moonshot AI | $1B ARR | $50B | Final private round; Hong Kong IPO planned for early 2027 |
| DeepSeek | $1B (estimate) | $51.82B | First external round; in talks at about $75B |
| Z.ai | n/a | n/a | No sourced financials on the board yet |
Alibaba's lead comes mostly from revenue: its $7.296B run-rate is the third-highest tracked figure on the board, behind only Anthropic and OpenAI. It is a whole-group metric covering AI-related products, not Qwen alone, and Alibaba has no lab-level valuation, so it is scored on 4 of 5 components. Z.ai is scored on only 3 (Arena, Artificial Analysis and odds), and its weights are rescaled.
Odds
On Polymarket's "best AI model end of 2026" market, none of the four is above half a percent: Alibaba 0.4%, Moonshot 0.35%, DeepSeek 0.35% and Z.ai 0.25%, as of 22 Oct 2026. The market prices this as a race between Anthropic (46.5%) and Google (43.0%).
Each lab's full breakdown is on its page: Alibaba, Moonshot AI, Z.ai and DeepSeek. For the funding story behind two of them, see DeepSeek valuation and funding and Moonshot's $50B round.
Sources
- Arena text leaderboard (opens in new tab) (as of 15 Oct 2026)
- Artificial Analysis leaderboards (opens in new tab) (fetched 22 Oct 2026)
- Which company has best AI model end of 2026? (opens in new tab) (Polymarket, fetched 22 Oct 2026)
- Alibaba Group Announces June Quarter 2026 Results (opens in new tab) (30 Jun 2026 quarter)
- Bloomberg: Moonshot closes round at $50bn valuation (opens in new tab) (Silicon Republic, 6 Oct 2026)
- Caixin: DeepSeek reaches $52 billion valuation (opens in new tab) (17 Jul 2026)
- CNBC: DeepSeek funding round (opens in new tab) (6 Oct 2026)
- Sacra: DeepSeek (opens in new tab) (estimate)