How did open-source AI model growth change since 2022?

Since 2022, there has been a resurgence of open-source models owing to their lower costs, growing capabilities, and broader accessibility for developers and enterprises alike[1]. These models are freely available for anyone to use, modify, and build upon[1].

China is leading the open-source race, with three large-scale models released in 2025 – DeepSeek-R1, Alibaba Qwen-32B, and Baidu Ernie 4.5[1]. Open-source AI is fueling sovereign AI initiatives, local language models, and community-led innovation[1].