DeepSeek and Qwen Just Captured 15% of the Global AI Market

A year ago, if you mentioned DeepSeek or Qwen in a planning meeting, you would have gotten blank stares. Maybe a "isn't that the Chinese one?" from someone who skimmed a Hacker News thread. Today, those two names represent roughly 15% of the global AI market -- up from barely 1% at the start of 2025. That is not a typo. That is the single fastest market share grab in the history of AI infrastructure.

I want to talk about what happened, why it matters, and what it means for those of us who actually build things with these models.

Open-source AI from China went from afterthought to serious contender in twelve months