China's ModelScope and MoArk race to replace Hugging Face

Alibaba's ModelScope and OSChina's MoArk, China's two largest open-model hubs, are competing to become the domestic answer to Hugging Face, which Chinese regulators blocked in 2023. The rivalry, reported by Rest of World, reflects Beijing's push to build an AI stack independent of American companies.

Alibaba launched ModelScope in 2022; it now hosts more than 170,000 models and in March reported 250 million users. OSChina followed with MoArk in 2023, which serves roughly 20,000 commonly used models. Both are modelled on Hugging Face, offering testing and customisation of open models, some free usage, and paid access to extra computing power.

A market opened by the block

Beijing gave no specific reason for blocking Hugging Face, but it routinely restricts foreign sites that can host information it deems harmful. Xu Yong, chief executive of OSChina, told Rest of World that not everyone can use a VPN all the time, and that China needed a self-reliant AI ecosystem for its Chinese-speaking population, just as its internet industry grew behind the Great Firewall. "In the AI era, China is developing an independent ecosystem faster than in the internet era," Xu said.

Concern over U.S. rules

Rebecca Arcesati, a Brussels-based researcher at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, said the government understands that global open-source platforms matter to its tech industry, since Chinese labs release open models abroad and local developers need foreign models in return. It also considers domestic platforms more secure than U.S.-regulated American services. "There is still this real concern in China that access to [the U.S.-based platforms] could be disrupted at any point," she said.

The Trump administration, keen to keep America's lead in AI, has reportedly discussed bans on Chinese models. In a U.S. regulatory filing on the Hugging Face deal, Nvidia flagged the risk that regulators could block Chinese models from being shared on the site.

Hardware and a sceptical audience

Hugging Face remains far larger than either Chinese rival, with more than 3 million open models, and in September Nvidia announced it would acquire the company for $12.9 billion. Chinese developers say the domestic platforms' main advantage is faster download speeds, but many still reach Hugging Face through a VPN. "Hugging Face and GitHub are the default in the open-source space. They offer a greater variety," Chen Yunfei, an independent developer in Kunming, told Rest of World. "Domestic platforms need to convince us why we should use them."

MoArk has assigned engineers to adapt AI models so they run on different types of Chinese chips. "It's our mission to make sure mainstream open models can run on Chinese chips," Xu said. The work answers a shortage of computing power: Washington has banned sales of top AI chips to China, and local firms are racing to build alternatives.