The AI race is no longer just about building better models. It’s becoming a battle over cost, control, and global influence. For years, the United States dominated frontier AI. Now, cheaper open-source models from China are changing the conversation. If companies and governments can run powerful AI models on their own infrastructure at a fraction of the cost, the economics of the entire industry could shift. That raises difficult questions. Can premium AI companies continue charging premium prices? Will open-source AI reshape the market the way open-source software reshaped computing? And where does India fit into all of this? With one of the world’s largest developer ecosystems and a growing AI mission, the decisions made over the next few years could influence the country’s long-term position in the global AI economy. Whether you agree with this analysis or not, one thing is clear: The competition is no longer between companies alone. It’s increasingly between ecosystems,...