Imagine if they had GPU resources of western labs.
SV companies get way too comfortable when they have enough in the bank to stay running more than three months.
Energy and intelligence are good too, sure.
As an end consumer, I don't care about the number of active parameters. I really do care only about the tracked metric (how well does it do the job, and how much does it cost... ideally also with time included, but that wouldn't fit on a 2D chart)
With the exception of cache costs, all providers have similar input/output costs.
They don't strictly need any kind of subsidies.
FWIW they have a funding round planned (kerfuffle about leaks from CEO presentation few weeks back) -- presumably because infrastructure needs have ballooned.
Naturally there will be some PRC government interest in one of their flagship AI companies. From what is visible seems to be more along the lines of ensuring that DS gets its fair share of resources -- e.g. Xi Jinping meeting founder and positive comments about success of DS means that (hypothetically) Alibaba can't screw DS too much on infra charges to kill off a 'competitor'. Also would imagine that DS's top guys have been clearly identified and will have been 'discouraged' from going to work for one of the SV polycules. But even here as much carrot as stick -- none of the DS top guys will ever need to work again except for love of the job.
> They don't strictly need any kind of subsidies.
You understand how these two sentences directly contradict each-other, yeah? The money-losing operating of training a model is paid for by momey earned from prior investments. So… the work is “subsidized” by its parent company’s investments in it.