FrontierThe story, in brief
Chinese AI startup MiniMax plans to open-source a 2.7 trillion parameter model later this year
2.7 trillion parameters. A Chinese startup just announced it's going open-source—and the West should be paying attention.
The KeyNews take
Why it matters
MiniMax's trillion-parameter open-source release signals an acceleration in China's AI capability race and could democratize access to frontier-scale models globally, challenging closed-model incumbents.
The key facts
5 to knowMiniMax developing 2.7 trillion parameter LLM
Model planned for open-source release
Expected release timeline: later in 2026
Chinese AI developer entering frontier-scale model competition
Potential competitive pressure on closed US/EU model providers
Go to the source
The Decoderthe-decoder.com
Publisher excerpt: Chinese AI developer MiniMax is working on a new large language model with 2.7 trillion parameters. MiniMax plans to release the model as open source.