ByteDance is reportedly training a massive artificial intelligence model with as many as 10 trillion parameters, a scale that could place it alongside some of the world’s most advanced AI systems. The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the project, reported on Friday that the model could approach the size of Anthropic’s flagship Mythos system.
If the reported figure is accurate, the model would be more than three times larger than Chinese startup Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, which is built with approximately 2.8 trillion parameters.
Parameters are the internal numerical values an AI model learns during training to identify patterns, understand information, generate responses and perform various tasks. While parameter count is often viewed as an indicator of a model’s scale, it does not necessarily reflect overall performance or intelligence.
Before the launch of Kimi K3, Meituan’s LongCat-2.0 and DeepSeek’s V4-Pro were among China’s largest AI models, each featuring around 1.6 trillion parameters. Several other Chinese developers have also crossed the one-trillion-parameter milestone as competition in the country’s AI sector intensifies.
Comparing Chinese models with leading US systems remains difficult because companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI have not publicly disclosed the parameter counts for their latest models, including Fable, Mythos and GPT-5.5.
According to the Financial Times, industry estimates suggest Anthropic’s flagship Mythos 5 model contains roughly 8 trillion parameters, while Fable 5 is believed to have around 5 trillion. If those estimates are accurate, ByteDance’s upcoming model would be comparable in scale to Mythos, making it one of the largest AI systems under development.
The report comes as Chinese technology companies continue to accelerate AI development in response to intensifying global competition. Firms are racing to build increasingly capable foundation models while also trying to keep training and operating costs under control as they compete with major US developers.
According to the report, ByteDance’s model is currently in the pre-training phase, during which it learns from vast amounts of data before being fine-tuned for specific applications. This stage typically lasts between three and six months before the model is prepared for public release or commercial deployment.
DeepSeek to raise AI service prices after offering ultra-low-cost models
Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is preparing to significantly increase the prices of its AI services, marking a notable departure from the aggressive low-cost strategy that has reshaped competition in the global AI industry.
The Hangzhou-based company has recently attracted widespread attention for offering high-performance AI models at a fraction of the cost charged by many rivals. Its V4 Flash model has demonstrated performance comparable to some of the world’s leading AI systems while costing only a few cents, compared with several dollars charged by major U.S. competitors.
In a notice issued to users on Thursday, the company said it plans to introduce substantial price increases across its AI services. However, it did not disclose the exact extent of the hikes, instead advising customers to prepare for the changes.
At present, DeepSeek charges just $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens.
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