/Tech5h ago

UBS finds 60% of budget-conscious companies are migrating to cheaper models and Chinese open-source options like DeepSeek

Individual user bills have reached $35,000 per month.

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Original post

Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai#1257inTech

UBS says 60% of companies now watching AI budgets are moving to cheaper models and open-source Chinese models

The pressure is coming from extreme bills, including users spending up to $35K/month, teams exceeding quotas by 200%, and companies cutting internal AI tools from 5 to 2.

Companies are not abandoning AI, they are using model routing, which sends easy tasks to cheaper models and saves premium models for hard reasoning, code, and long-context work.

Chinese open-source models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, MiniMax, GLM, and Kimi now fit the enterprise cost curve because they can be run locally or used through cloud catalogs.

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news .futunn.com/en/post/75068082/ubs-group-finds-60-have-already-started-curbing-ai-spending?level=2&data_ticket=1780870170397383

9:07 PM · Jun 25, 2026 · 26.8K Views

Sentiment

Many users criticize the shift to cheaper open-source Chinese models as risking revenue loss and data theft while others see it as sensible procurement discipline amid high AI costs.

Pos

33.3%

Neg

66.7%

13 comments with sentiment.

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Bill Gurley@bgurley

This is what’s causing Anthropic to aggressively beg for govt protection (see below). Customers are finding cheaper alternatives. Keeping employees requires continuing ultra-rich secondaries ($$$) that are dependent on revenue growth. When you can’t win on the field go to DC.

Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai

UBS says 60% of companies now watching AI budgets are moving to cheaper models and open-source Chinese models

The pressure is coming from extreme bills, including users spending up to $35K/month, teams exceeding quotas by 200%, and companies cutting internal AI tools from 5 to 2.

Companies are not abandoning AI, they are using model routing, which sends easy tasks to cheaper models and saves premium models for hard reasoning, code, and long-context work.

Chinese open-source models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, MiniMax, GLM, and Kimi now fit the enterprise cost curve because they can be run locally or used through cloud catalogs.

---

news .futunn.com/en/post/75068082/ubs-group-finds-60-have-already-started-curbing-ai-spending?level=2&data_ticket=1780870170397383

1h6.5K4610

Daniel Jeffries@Dan_Jeffries1

There will be more and more pressure and more money and lobbying behind open soon.

It is not a "two big companies have all the power in AI" situation like some imagine.

The financial incentives are shifting away from single monopoly ownership and those companies will have a lot of power to push back against regulatory capture and overreach. We need this to happen a lot faster before the barriers are setup and destroy us.

That's because the opposite is also possible if we keep going down the road of closed.

The more our companies and governments gate and close off, the worse we compete in the world.

We are single handedly killing our own economy and competitiveness with stupidity right now.

Slowing rollouts. Half baked orders and laws. Outright stupid laws. Fear Mongering. NIMBYs. Luddites running rampant. Regulatory capture.

The future is ugly if we keep going down this path.

We're speed running dystopia.

But the economic winds are shifting. American business will have a lot of say in what comes next. They need to wake up and see that the regulatory capture and populism is not in their favor and that if we have to beg companies and governments for access and submit to face scans and upload our birth certificate, it will work briefly and then it will really start to hurt us, and then we simply will not be able to compete and we'll incentivize the rest of the world to run fast in the another direction.

Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai

UBS says 60% of companies now watching AI budgets are moving to cheaper models and open-source Chinese models

The pressure is coming from extreme bills, including users spending up to $35K/month, teams exceeding quotas by 200%, and companies cutting internal AI tools from 5 to 2.

Companies are not abandoning AI, they are using model routing, which sends easy tasks to cheaper models and saves premium models for hard reasoning, code, and long-context work.

Chinese open-source models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, MiniMax, GLM, and Kimi now fit the enterprise cost curve because they can be run locally or used through cloud catalogs.

---

news .futunn.com/en/post/75068082/ubs-group-finds-60-have-already-started-curbing-ai-spending?level=2&data_ticket=1780870170397383

2h759140

The AI Grandpa@theaigrandpa@theaigrandpa

@rohanpaul_ai So, train Chinese open AI models on your information so they can take your data and make their own companies so they can put you out of business next year? Great business model. China doesn't even have to steal or data. We hand it over willingly.

1h1531

Outdated Often@JamesSurra34

@rohanpaul_ai Dude no US or EU companies are using Chinese models. Maybe a bunch of them are using Gemma4

5h3144

hengcherkeng@hengcherkeng

@rohanpaul_ai Microsoft already looking at cheaper deepseek for simple task for his copilot. You do not need expensive fable just to write reply email. If US model can cooperate with china model, we can have both cheap and good model in token routing. Cheap support expensive and vice versa

2h891

Daniel Jeffries@Dan_Jeffries1

There will be more and more pressure and more money and lobbying behind open soon.

It is not a "two big companies have all the power in AI" situation like some imagine.

The financial incentives are shifting away from single monopoly ownership and those companies will have a lot of power to push back against regulatory capture and overreach.

The more our companies and governments gate and close off, the worse we compete in the world.

We are single handedly killing our own economy and competitiveness with stupidity.

Slowing rollouts. Half baked orders and laws. Outright stupid laws. Fear Mongering. NIMBYs. Luddites running rampant. Regulatory capture.

The future is ugly if we keep going down this path.

We're speed running dystopia.

Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai

UBS says 60% of companies now watching AI budgets are moving to cheaper models and open-source Chinese models

The pressure is coming from extreme bills, including users spending up to $35K/month, teams exceeding quotas by 200%, and companies cutting internal AI tools from 5 to 2.

Companies are not abandoning AI, they are using model routing, which sends easy tasks to cheaper models and saves premium models for hard reasoning, code, and long-context work.

Chinese open-source models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, MiniMax, GLM, and Kimi now fit the enterprise cost curve because they can be run locally or used through cloud catalogs.

---

news .futunn.com/en/post/75068082/ubs-group-finds-60-have-already-started-curbing-ai-spending?level=2&data_ticket=1780870170397383

2h40430

Tungfa … τ@her6616293

@JamesSurra34 @rohanpaul_ai Many are ! Obviously US companies are doing this on the low , as they do not wanna run in trouble with Trumpi - but many already are

https://youtu.be/pEh_6HIfZ5Q?si=F93r7iHjpHx63LF7

4h43

Sir Mr Meow Meow@SirMrMeowmeow

@rohanpaul_ai 🧐 interesting

5h912

erik@try.works@trydotworks

@rohanpaul_ai if you want to route between frontier models like GPT 5.5 and cheaper open models like DeepSeek and GLM, you should be using role-model which is the best open model router. Runs on your own device and routes based on your own preferences.

https://github.com/try-works/role-model

2h1081

K-Line@Maddere7

@rohanpaul_ai 60%这个数字我一点都不意外，我们公司上个月刚把内部AI工具从4个砍到2个。最离谱的是有个team光API调用一个月烧了快$40K，老板脸都绿了。现在全公司统一用DeepSeek跑简单任务，贵模型留给写代码和长文档用。

3h1031

Pregory McRonald III née Citadel (in memoriam)@Pregory1

@rohanpaul_ai Aren't companies concerned about Chinese AI companies training on their data? Is this a redux of the previous several decades of US companies going to China to save on cost and getting their IP stolen? Faustian bargain.

3h174

Catwith9lives@Catwith169lives

@rohanpaul_ai What (if anything) does this mean for the ROI on hyperscalar DC investment and the sustainability of the capex binge?

4h143

Seva Gribov@principo

@rohanpaul_ai So users are switching from using heavily subsidised US models to even more subsidised Chinese. Okay, good luck to them! 🤣

2h119

Prabhu@prabhugopal_

@rohanpaul_ai no other way :)

4h114

Jonathan Salomon@TheRealJSalomon

@rohanpaul_ai The crash of the AI investment bubble is going to arrive sooner or later.

5h112

Serpico@Serpico915

@rohanpaul_ai Good for them this House of cards needs to collapse.

2h105

Broadstreet@mattbroadstreet

@rohanpaul_ai 🔼

5h76

Sanjay Kalra, AI Transformation Sherpa™️@sanjaykalra

@rohanpaul_ai

4h69

Shivanand Chavhan@shivanandgr8

@rohanpaul_ai LLMs will likely become commoditized over time. As Chinese labs and open-source models continue closing the gap with Claude and ChatGPT, companies like OpenAI and Anthropic may find it harder to maintain their current dominance through model performance alone.

3h59

RobertT@rob__tab

@rohanpaul_ai @deepseek_ai @Alibaba_Qwen @Kimi_Moonshot

3h28