I tried to test Chinas newest ChatGPT rival but couldnt get in and it
exposed the next big problem facing the major AI players

Date:
Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
I tried to test Chinas newest ChatGPT rival but I couldnt get in, and it's proof the AI race is no longer just about better models it's about access.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Chinas latest ChatGPT rival, Kimi , is now available for download on the Apple App Store, so I downloaded it on my iPhone, intending to test it against ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. I had the prompts ready; I had the comparison planned. Then Kimi presented me with a very modern problem that I wasnt expecting: too many people were already trying to talk to it.

This is not just app-launch inconvenience. It captures one of the biggest problems in AI right now: being clever is one thing, but the best models are only useful if companies have enough servers and GPUs to allow people to actually use them.

In our recent Kimi review we said: "Kimi delivers impressive performance for coding, document analysis, and multi-step agentic tasks, especially considering its price point." Kimi may be positioned as a serious open-weight rival to US models, but if the first ordinary-user experience is that they're stuck queuing at the door, how useful is it really? Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: (Image credit: Moonshot AI / Apple) What is Kimi? Do you remember back in 2025, when DeepSeek-R1 was released and the internet went wild for Chinese AI models? It was a game-changing moment, because it immediately became obvious that we werent beholden to the Silicon Valley giants like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic for AI. China could create AI models too and, it turned out, they were a lot cheaper to run, and almost as good.

While DeepSeek was arguably the first Chinese AI model to really break
through into the mainstream, Kimi is the latest. Its story is slightly different, because its a giant open-weight model thats not just cheap and technically impressive, but directly useful for coding, spreadsheets, knowledge work, and long-context tasks with agent-style workflows. You may like Moonshot's new AI model Kimi K3 is a big threat to the likes of OpenAI China cracks down on Western models while US companies flock to DeepSeek OpenAI unveils big GPT-5.6 upgrades for ChatGPT, but you can't use them yet

Open weight means the finished AI model is available for others to download and run, rather than only being accessible through the companys own app or website. That is not the same as being fully open source, of course. Open source would imply a much more complete release of the code, training
process, data details and license freedoms needed to understand, rebuild and modify the model from the ground up. The data squeeze Id love to be able to open my phone, try a serious Chinese AI model, and get something genuinely competitive in minutes. But without the capacity to serve the millions of people who pile onto a hyped new AI model, raw intelligence only gets you so far. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

That is why Kimis error message matters, and it points to the issue currently reshaping the entire AI industry. In the past week alone, Reuters reported that Nvidia is discussing huge financing guarantees to help OpenAI lease a proposed 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio, while other tech giants are racing to secure more data-center capacity of their own.

In other words, the next stage of the AI race may not be decided purely by benchmark scores or clever demos. It may be decided by power, servers, GPUs and the ability to keep a popular model online when millions of people suddenly want to use it.

Kimi may be impressive, but my first experience with it wasnt about intelligence; it was about access. In 2026, the AI race is no longer just about who can build the best model. Its about who can keep the thing online when everyone wants to use it. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as
a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/i-tried-to-test-chinas-newes t-chatgpt-rival-but-couldnt-get-in-and-it-exposed-the-next-big-problem-facing- the-major-ai-players


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