Moonshot's Kimi K3 Is the Largest Open Model Yet

Chinese AI lab Moonshot released the full open weights for Kimi K3, a claimed 2.8 trillion parameter model that would be the largest open-weight system released to date. The download is confirmed by The Verge, TechCrunch, and Hard Fork; the performance claims are not yet independently benchmarked. The release lands amid an escalating policy fight over whether freely distributing frontier-grade Chinese models is a public good or a form of economic dumping designed to build ecosystem dependence — with Meta's Yann LeCun and Andreessen Horowitz arguing restrictions would only handcuff US labs, and restriction advocates framing subsidized free models as a competitive weapon. The concrete near-term stakes: a free, top-tier open model puts real pricing pressure on paid products built on close ...