Marcus SchulerMiniMax M2.5 scored within 0.6 points of Claude Opus 4.6 on key coding benchmarks while costing roughly 5% as much per token. Five Chinese AI labs shipped major models in a single week, suggesting the competition has shifted from capability gaps to cost optimization. Western labs face pressure to match prices without destroying research margins.
https://www.implicator.ai/minimax-matched-opus-at-5-of-the-price-the-ai-premium-is-dead/
@economyandspace