Chinese AI Model Usage Surpasses United States Again, Shenwan Hongyuan: AI Hardware Value Space Has Opened

OpenRouter’s latest data shows that from March 2 to 8, the total usage of large models on the platform reached 4.19 trillion tokens, a 34.9% increase month-over-month, once again surpassing the United States. Among them, Chinese large models MiniMax M2.5, DeepSeekV3.2, and Step3.5 Flash ranked in the top five.

Shenwan Hongyuan’s Huang Zhonghuang team released a research report stating:

1. In the Agent era, the token consumption of models has increased exponentially compared to chatbots, making developers more sensitive to the price per token of models;

2. Domestic models demonstrate strong cost-effectiveness compared to overseas models, with overall costs about 1/6 to 1/10 of overseas models;

3. The cost-effectiveness of domestic models comes from architecture improvements brought by models like DeepSeek, especially MLA and sparse architectures, which significantly reduce inference costs;

4. The advantage in domestic electricity costs also explains part of the cost-effectiveness. According to our calculations using Chinese data center electricity, a single B200 card could save approximately $900 annually.

OpenClaw has sparked market reflections on the product form of the AI era. We believe that the prototype of the Agent becoming an OS has already emerged. Future Agents will involve at least three levels of collaboration: the bottom layer is OpenClaw plus foundational models; the middle layer connects basic tools and skills; the top layer involves skills invoking tools/APIs to solve practical problems. AI terminals will also become an important way to reach users in the future, and the form of AI-native terminals will undergo significant changes.

Deep customization for vertical industries is becoming a key path for breaking the “toy-like” perception of AI hardware. AI-native terminals are emerging, with tech giants like OpenAI deploying AI terminals, and vertical industry vendors launching products in fields such as industry, law, finance, and healthcare. AI-native terminals will change interaction logic and business models, simplifying interaction chains from “touch navigation” to “intent direct access” via natural language, gaze, or gestures; business models will shift from “one-time hardware purchase” to “hardware + AI service subscription.”

For recommended stocks, focus on:

AIGC applications: Hikvision + Kingsoft Office + Hundsun Technologies + China Control Systems

AIGC computing power: Inspur + Hygon + Digital China

Hong Kong stocks core: China Software International + Kingdee International + China Civil Aviation Information Network + Lenovo Group

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