The U.S. and China develop nearly all of the world's most popular AI models
Mikhail T. (Sh0ny)
5 июля 20261 min read
In short
An analysis of OpenRouter data shows that the vast majority of the most in-demand AI models are developed by companies in the United States and China. The number of Chinese models in the top 50 has risen from 5 to 20 over the past year and a half.
Dozens of companies around the world are developing large AI models, but it can be difficult to figure out exactly where the most popular ones come from. The OpenRouter platform offers a convenient way to find out: it allows users to interact with models and build software on top of them through a single interface. Among the available models are products from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek, Alibaba, and many other developers.
The author of the study analyzed OpenRouter data on the 50 most-used models every day starting in January 2025 and calculated the average monthly presence of models by country of origin.
The U.S. Maintains the Lead but Is Losing Market Share
U.S. companies still account for the majority of models in OpenRouter’s top 50. However, their presence is gradually declining. At the same time, the share of Chinese developers is growing: while there were only 5 models from China in the daily top 50 at the beginning of 2025, by May 2026 that number had reached 20.
Almost No One Else
There are almost no models from companies outside the U.S. and China in the top 50. In early 2025, Canada was represented by the Command R models from Cohere, while France maintains its position thanks to the NeMo model from Mistral AI.
Thus, the technology used by more and more people every year is, for now, almost entirely the product of these two countries.