Every few months, an AI lab in China that most people in the U.S. have never heard of releases an AI model that upends conventional wisdom about the cost of training and running cutting-edge AI. In January,

Shanghai-based AI firm, MiniMax, has launched an open-source reasoning model, MiniMax-M1, challenging rivals DeepSeek and others in performance and cost.

The open-source M1 boasts a record-breaking context window and lean training budget, promising enterprise-grade reasoning without hyperscaler resources — and reshaping the AI playing field.