China’s Rival AI Hubs

HangzhouChina blocked Hugging Face a year after Alibaba’s rival launched.

Whoever runs China’s model hub decides which AI its developers can find and use.

Alibaba’s ModelScope now hosts more than 170,000 models, while rival OSChina’s MoArk, launched in 2023, hosts roughly 20,000.

“Not everyone is able to use a VPN all the time,” said Xu Yong, chief executive of OSChina.

Nvidia’s $12.9bn purchase of Hugging Face leaves open whether Chinese developers can keep reaching it via VPN.

How each outlet framed it

Rest of World: maps China's independent AI ecosystem (ModelScope 170k+ models, MoArk 20k) as scaling faster than internet-era alternatives post-HF ban