The Chinese open-weights release timeline, dated

This is a list of dates, not an argument. Every row is a model whose weights were
published for anyone to download, with a date I could trace back to the organization that
published it, a parameter count as stated by that organization, and a link.

Most timelines of this kind are written from memory or from coverage, which is why they drift.
I built this one from vendor pages, papers and Hugging Face's API. This revision leaves the table
at 67 rows: seven are new, one of them because an entry I dropped in the first pass turns out to
be open-weights after all. The dropped list at the end has eleven entries, each with a reason.

How to read this timeline

Open weights only. A release is in the table only if the organization published
downloadable weights. API-only and hosted-only models are out, including flagship ones:
Qwen3-Max, the served ERNIE models, Kimi's hosted variants, DeepSeek's API-only models.

A date I could trace. The Date column has two kinds of value. A plain date is the date on
the organization's own dated page — a research blog post, a news post, a release page, an
accepted paper. A date marked † is the Hugging Face repository creation timestamp in UTC,
read from the Hugging Face API on 2026-10-09, used when the vendor had no dated page I could
read. The two can differ by a few days, and that is usually preparation rather than a
different release: DeepSeek-V3's weights repository was created 2024-12-25 12:52 UTC and the
announcement is dated 2024-12-26.

Parameter counts come from the vendor, or they are blank. Total parameters with activated
parameters for mixture-of-experts models, as stated on the announcement, the model card, or
the repository holding the same weights. A family that ships many sizes gets a range. Where
none of the vendor's pages for that release states a count, the cell is — rather than a
number carried over from a sibling model, even when the lineage makes the number obvious.

One link per row, to the vendor or the weight repository. No aggregator links, no
news coverage. That makes most rows single-source by construction: each cites the vendor's own
statement about its own release, and every † row is single-source by definition.

Scope. Language models and the flagship multimodal lines that carry the same brand and
weights: Qwen3-VL, Qwen3-Omni, MiniMax-M3. Pure image, video and speech models are out of scope.

When the vendor's page is client-rendered

Two of the labs whose releases I date most often publish announcements as a page that ships no
text to a plain HTTP request. z.ai's blog returns a 598-byte HTML shell that loads a JavaScript
bundle; qwen.ai's blog returns a shell that fetches its content after load. Both render fine in
a browser, which is what a reader clicking the link sees.

For z.ai I did read something: the date string sits inside the page's own bundle, so the bundle
is where I checked GLM-4.5 (2025-07-28),
GLM-4.6 (2025-09-30), GLM-4.7
(2025-12-22) and GLM-5 (2026-02-12). That is weaker evidence than a
rendered page, and it is why GLM-5.2 stays out: its bundle contains
2026-06-16 and no other date, and a date visible only inside a build artifact is not one I will
print as sourced.

Qwen's older blog carries the full text and a date; the newer qwen.ai copies do not. So the
three Qwen3-* rows dated from qwen.ai in the first pass now cite the weight repository and
carry a †.

2023

Q1–Q2

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
ChatGLM-6B	2023-03-13 †	6.2B	THUDM/chatglm-6b
Baichuan-7B	2023-06-13 †	7B	baichuan-inc/Baichuan-7B
ChatGLM2-6B	2023-06-24 †	—	THUDM/chatglm2-6b

Q3–Q4

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
Qwen-7B	2023-08-03 †	7B	Qwen/Qwen-7B-Chat
Baichuan 2	2023-09-19	7B, 13B	arXiv:2309.10305
ChatGLM3-6B	2023-10-25 †	—	THUDM/chatglm3-6b
Yi-34B	2023-11-01 †	34B	01-ai/Yi-34B
DeepSeek Coder	2023-11-01 †	1.3B–33B	deepseek-ai/deepseek-coder-33b-instruct
DeepSeek LLM	2023-11-29 †	7B, 67B	deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-LLM-67B-Chat

Baichuan 2 is the only 2023 row dated by a paper: arXiv:2309.10305 is dated 2023-09-19,
while its weight repositories appear earlier, on 2023-08-30 †, so the paper is the single
source for that date. The two ChatGLM cells are blank because their cards do not state a count:
6.2 billion is on the ChatGLM-6B card and not on the cards of its two successors, and copying
it across is the habit that makes timelines of this kind drift.

2024

Q1

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
Qwen1.5	2024-02-04	0.5B–110B	Qwen blog

Qwen1.5 was in the dropped list in the first pass, because I looked for it on the new blog and
found nothing readable. The old blog still carries the post, dated 2024-02-04, listing six
sizes plus 110B.

Q2–Q3

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
DeepSeek-V2	2024-05-07	236B total, 21B active	arXiv:2405.04434
GLM-4-9B	2024-06-04 †	9B	zai-org/GLM-4-9B-Chat
Qwen2	2024-06-07	0.5B–72B	Qwen blog
Qwen2-VL	2024-08-29	2B, 7B, 72B	Qwen blog
DeepSeek-V2.5	2024-09-05 †	—	deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V2.5
Qwen2.5	2024-09-19	0.5B–72B	Qwen blog

Q4

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
Hunyuan-Large	2024-10-22 †	389B total, 52B active	tencent/Hunyuan-Large
Qwen2.5-Coder	2024-11-06 †	0.5B–32B	Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct
DeepSeek-V2.5-1210	2024-12-10	—	DeepSeek changelog
DeepSeek-V3	2024-12-26	671B total, 37B active	DeepSeek news

The DeepSeek point releases inside a model line are dated on DeepSeek's own changelog, one page
per release. Hunyuan-Large's 389B/52B comes from
arXiv:2411.02265, submitted 2024-11-04, three weeks after
the weights appeared.

2025

Q1

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
MiniMax-Text-01	2025-01-14	456B total, 45.9B active	arXiv:2501.08313
DeepSeek-R1	2025-01-20	671B total, 37B active	DeepSeek news
Qwen2.5-VL	2025-01-27 †	3B, 7B, 72B	Qwen/Qwen2.5-VL-72B-Instruct
QwQ-32B	2025-03-06	32B	Qwen blog
DeepSeek-V3-0324	2025-03-25	671B total, 37B active	DeepSeek changelog

The two DeepSeek updates here do not restate a parameter count on their own changelog pages;
the cells carry the count from the repositories that hold those weights, which are the V3 and
R1 repositories listed above.

Q2

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
Qwen3	2025-04-29	0.6B–235B	Qwen blog
DeepSeek-R1-0528	2025-05-28	671B total, 37B active	DeepSeek changelog
MiniCPM4-8B	2025-06-05 †	8B	openbmb/MiniCPM4-8B
MiniMax-M1	2025-06-16	456B total, 45.9B active	arXiv:2506.13585
Hunyuan-A13B	2025-06-27	80B total, 13B active	Tencent-Hunyuan/Hunyuan-A13B
ERNIE 4.5	2025-06-30	0.3B–300B; flagship 300B/47B	ERNIE blog

Q3

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
Kimi K2	2025-07-11 †	1T total, 32B active	moonshotai/Kimi-K2-Instruct
Qwen3-Coder	2025-07-22	480B total, 35B active	Qwen blog
GLM-4.5	2025-07-28	355B total, 32B active	z.ai blog
Step-3	2025-07-31	321B total, 38B active	StepFun research
Seed-OSS-36B	2025-08-21	36B	ByteDance Seed blog
DeepSeek-V3.1	2025-08-21 †	—	deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1
LongCat-Flash-Chat	2025-08-29 †	560B total, 18.6B–31.3B active	meituan-longcat/LongCat-Flash-Chat
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B	2025-09-09 †	80B total, 3B active	Qwen/Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Ling-flash-2.0	2025-09-17 †	100B total, 6.1B active	inclusionAI/Ling-flash-2.0
Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B	2025-09-20 †	30B total, 3B active	Qwen/Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct
Qwen3-VL	2025-09-22 †	235B total, 22B active	Qwen/Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp	2025-09-29	—	DeepSeek news
GLM-4.6	2025-09-30	—	z.ai blog

Q4

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
Ling-1T	2025-10-02 †	1T total, 50B active	inclusionAI/Ling-1T
DeepSeek-OCR	2025-10-17 †	—	deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-OCR
LongCat-Flash-Omni	2025-10-23 †	560B total, 27B active	meituan-longcat/LongCat-Flash-Omni
MiniMax-M2	2025-10-27	230B total, 10B active	MiniMax blog
Kimi K2 Thinking	2025-11-04 †	—	moonshotai/Kimi-K2-Thinking
DeepSeek-V3.2	2025-12-01	—	DeepSeek news
GLM-4.7	2025-12-22	—	z.ai blog

2026

Q1

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
GLM-4.7-Flash	2026-01-19 †	30B total, 3B active	zai-org/GLM-4.7-Flash
Step-3.5-Flash	2026-02-01 †	196B total, 11B active	stepfun-ai/Step-3.5-Flash
MiniMax-M2.5	2026-02-12	—	MiniMax news
GLM-5	2026-02-12	744B total, 40B active	z.ai blog
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B	2026-02-16	397B total, 17B active	Alibaba press release

Q2

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
MiniMax-M2.7	2026-04-09 †	—	MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.7
Kimi K2.6	2026-04-14 †	1T total, 32B active	moonshotai/Kimi-K2.6
DeepSeek-V4 (Pro and Flash)	2026-04-24	Pro 1.6T total / 49B active; Flash 284B total / 13B active	DeepSeek news
Step 3.7 Flash	2026-05-23 †	198B total, 11B active	stepfun-ai/Step-3.7-Flash
MiniMax-M3	2026-06-01	~428B total, ~23B active	MiniMax blog

The DeepSeek-V4 row now carries both counts; the Flash model's 284B total is stated on the same
announcement page as the Pro figures. Step 3.7 Flash moved to a † date: its GitHub repository
has no releases, and the page I first cited carries a creation timestamp rather than a release
date.

Q3

Model	Date	Parameters	Source
LongCat-2.0	2026-07-05 †	1.6T total, ~48B active	meituan-longcat/LongCat-2.0
Hunyuan Hy3	2026-07-06	295B total, 21B active	Tencent newsroom
Qwen3.8	2026-08-05 †	27B; 2.4T total / 95B active	Qwen/Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B
DeepSeek-V4-Pro GA	2026-08-13	1.6T total, 49B active	DeepSeek changelog
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp	2026-08-21	—	DeepSeek changelog
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash	2026-09-10	552B total; 8B active for input, 16B for output	DeepSeek changelog

Hy3 is the entry whose status changed in this revision. In the first pass I dropped it because
the page I found did not say whether weights were published. It does: Hy3 is open-sourced under
Apache 2.0 with weights on Hugging Face, and Tencent's newsroom names the parameter counts. The
V4-Pro GA row repeats the count from the April preview announcement, because the GA page does
not restate it. The Qwen3.8 row is dated by the repository of the 27B model, the first of the
line to appear; the flagship 2.4T-A95B repository was created three days later, and Qwen's own
announcement page is one of the client-rendered ones described above.

Two rows elsewhere disagree with third-party timelines for the same reason: LongCat-2.0's
repository was created 2026-07-05 while secondary coverage puts its launch at the end of June,
and DeepSeek-V4-Flash's repository was created 2026-04-22, two days before the announcement
page.

What changed in this revision

Seven rows were added and three cells changed, listed because the edit history is the point of
a table like this:

1. Qwen1.5 promoted into 2024 Q1 (2024-02-04), after finding the dated post on the old Qwen blog.
2. Hunyuan Hy3 promoted into 2026 Q3 (2026-07-06). It was dropped in error.
3. Four DeepSeek point releases added: V2.5-1210 (2024-12-10), V3-0324 (2025-03-25), R1-0528 (2025-05-28) and V4-Pro GA (2026-08-13). All four are dated on DeepSeek's own changelog, the same source as V3.2 and V3.2-Exp.
4. Qwen3.8 added (2026-08-05 †), which the first pass omitted entirely.
5. Two ChatGLM parameter cells blanked. The ChatGLM2-6B and ChatGLM3-6B cards do not state a count, so the cells are now —.
6. DeepSeek-V4-Flash gained its total. The row said "Flash 13B active" and dropped the 284B total, which the same page states.

Three rows changed source or date type for the same structural reason: the Qwen3-Next,
Qwen3-Omni and Step 3.7 Flash rows now cite a weight repository with a †, because the pages
cited in the first pass were either unreadable to a plain request or carried no release date.

How this table gets updated

The table is edited in place. Every quarter I re-read the vendor pages for the labs already
listed, then check Hugging Face for new repositories under those organizations. A release
enters the table when it has a date and a link; until then it sits in the dropped list, with
the reason.

Two rules keep it stable: I do not replace a † date with a later one unless the vendor
publishes its own dated page, and I do not remove a superseded row.

The current table has 67 entries. Twenty-three of them fall in the twelve months from October
2025 to October 2026. That is a count of this table and nothing more; it is not a claim about
the field, because the table only holds releases I could date.

What I could not check

Eleven candidates were dropped, for these reasons:

1. Yi-1.5 (May 2024) — the weight repository (01-ai/Yi-1.5-34B) was created 2024-05-11 †, and I could not date the announcement itself.
2. InternLM2 and InternLM2.5 — the weight repositories (internlm/internlm2-7b, internlm/internlm2_5-7b-chat) look like renamed predecessors, so the creation timestamp does not mark the release.
3. MiniCPM 1 and 2 — same problem; the repository (openbmb/MiniCPM-2B-sft-bf16) is now a monorepo for a whole series.
4. Baichuan 3 and 4 — I could not find weight artifacts at all.
5. ERNIE 5.0 and ERNIE 5.1 — Baidu's blog dates them 2026-02-06 and 2026-05-09 (ERNIE 5.0, ERNIE 5.1) and describes ERNIE 5.0 as a 2.4-trillion-parameter model, but I found no open-weight repository for either.
6. Kimi K3 — the model card (moonshotai/Kimi-K3) carries the full architecture table (2.8T total, 104B activated) and a license, but no release date. The repository timestamp is 2026-06-13 and secondary coverage says mid-July. I could not reconcile that.
7. Kimi K2.5 — same shape of problem: the weight repository timestamp (moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5) is 2026-01-01 while the launch is reported at the end of January.
8. GLM-5.2 — the post is client-rendered and the only date string in its bundle is 2026-06-16. I am not willing to print that as the release date.
9. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus — a mid-cycle rename with a 2025-09-22 † repository (deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus); including it would have double-counted the V3.1 line.
10. Qwen-Image-2.1 — a dated weight repository (Qwen/Qwen-Image-2.1, 2026-09-14 †) but an image model, outside this table's scope by the rule stated at the top.
11. The Step-Audio line — the same, for speech. The repositories exist (stepfun-ai/Step-Audio-R1.1) and I did not date them, because they would need their own table with its own scope.

Three other limits on this table:

• The † timestamps are preparation times, not launch times. A repository can be created days before the announcement, and from outside I cannot see whether weights were uploaded at once or in pieces. Where the gap is large I noted it above the table.
• The dates are the vendor's own. No release date here has been confirmed by a second source, and one link per release is deliberate: a vendor correcting itself is the signal worth keeping, and coverage repeating the vendor is not a second source.
• License differences are not reflected. Apache-2.0, MIT and the vendor-specific licenses Kimi, MiniMax and LongCat ship under are not the same permission. Each row links to the page that states its license, and for Hy3 that page states Apache 2.0.

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