Jio IPO Filing Nears as Reliance Targets $4 Billion Market Debut 
John Jumper Leaves Google DeepMind for Anthropic Amid Intensifying AI Talent Race 
Qantas Nears Launch of World’s Longest Non-Stop Flights to London and New York 
OpenAI's $34B Spending Pushes AI Market Leadership Ahead of IPO 
Trump Administration Delays DeepSeek and CXMT Trade Blacklist Designations Amid U.S.-China Tensions 
Apple Signals Product Price Hikes Amid Rising Memory Chip Costs 
Chinese Social Media Giant Xiaohongshu Eyes Hong Kong IPO at Over $70 Billion Valuation 
SK Hynix Shares Hit Record High After Shipping Next-Generation HBM4E AI Memory Samples 
Trump Says Anthropic No Longer Seen as National Security Threat 
BHP Shares Fall as Jansen Potash Project Costs Surge 
SpaceX IPO Set for Explosive Debut as Valuation Tops $2.2 Trillion 
SpaceX Stock Gets $175 Target as Analysts See Massive Growth Ahead 
Elon Musk Becomes World's First Trillionaire After SpaceX IPO Surge 
Hanmi Semicon Shares Surge After $33 Million SpaceX Investment 
SpaceX IPO Sparks Market Optimism as Shares Surge 19% on Trading Debut 
UK Banks Report Surge in APP Fraud Losses as Pressure Mounts on Meta and Tech Platforms 
ByteDance Eyes Iluvatar, Baidu AI Chips Amid China’s AI Push 
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://econotimes.com/Xiaomis-AI-Model-Hunter-Alpha-Mistaken-for-DeepSeeks-Next-Release-1736719/&media=https://f1.econotimes.com/2025/03/e131um5tk1.jpg&description=Xiaomi's AI Model "Hunter Alpha" Mistaken for DeepSeek's Next Release - EconoTimes)
A mysterious artificial intelligence model that appeared anonymously on the developer platform OpenRouter last week has been identified as a product of Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, not the widely anticipated next release from DeepSeek as many had speculated. The model, called Hunter Alpha, surfaced on March 11 without any developer attribution, quickly sparking rumors that it could be a stealth test of DeepSeek-V4, the highly anticipated follow-up to the models that shook global tech markets last year.
DeepSeek's low-cost models V3 and R1 triggered a massive tech stock selloff, prompting investors to question whether U.S. AI companies truly needed to pour billions into computing infrastructure. Ever since, anticipation for DeepSeek-V4 has been intense, with Chinese media reporting a potential April launch.
Xiaomi's AI division, MiMo, led by former DeepSeek researcher Luo Fuli, confirmed Wednesday that Hunter Alpha is actually an early internal test build of MiMo-V2-Pro, a model designed to power AI agents capable of executing complex tasks with minimal human input. Luo described the moment as a "quiet ambush," noting how rapidly the industry has shifted from conversational AI to autonomous agent systems.
During testing by Reuters, Hunter Alpha identified itself as a Chinese AI model with a knowledge cutoff of May 2025, matching what DeepSeek's own chatbot had reported, which further fueled the initial confusion. The model also declined to name its developer, adding to the mystery.
What drew widespread attention was Hunter Alpha's impressive technical profile, including one trillion parameters and a one-million-token context window offered completely free. Engineers noted that most frontier models with comparable capabilities come at significant cost.
The model rapidly topped OpenRouter's usage leaderboard, surpassing one trillion tokens processed, confirming strong early adoption and making Xiaomi a notable new player in the competitive AI landscape.
