``` What does DeepSeek's price surge mean? Goldman Sachs: Domestic large model competition is returning to rationality. ```

``` What does DeepSeek's price surge mean? Goldman Sachs: Domestic large model competition is returning to rationality. ```

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Raising API prices during peak hours is becoming an important signal of a shift in the competitive landscape of the domestic large model industry.

Goldman Sachs’ July 3rd research report points out that DeepSeek’s implementation of peak-hour price adjustments starting in mid-July does not indicate weakening demand. On the contrary, it reflects continued strong demand for domestic AI models, tightening computing resources, and a shift in industry competition from an early aggressive price war to a more rational pricing framework.

According to the plan, peak hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., during which API prices are raised to double the off-peak rate. The off-peak prices for the V4 Pro and Flash versions remain unchanged. Goldman Sachs estimates the adjusted average price to be about $0.35 and $0.12 per million tokens.

This change means that the focus of competition among domestic large model vendors is shifting from pure price competition to an integrated contest in cost control, computing efficiency, and commercialization capability.

More importantly, this could mark the end of the aggressive price competition that has persisted since late April 2026. Previously, industry prices had been compressed to zero profit or even loss levels, but as inference costs are gradually repriced by the market, the overall pricing system is beginning to return to real costs.

The competitive focus shifts from scale expansion to efficiency-driven

Aside from pricing mechanisms, Goldman Sachs also notes that the structure of competition in the domestic large model industry is changing, with industry concentration gradually increasing.

For example, MiniMax’s management believes that compared to large internet companies with massive frameworks, their advantages lie in a more streamlined organizational structure, higher infrastructure utilization efficiency, faster model iteration speed, and the ability to quickly respond to emerging agent application opportunities. For instance, after the rise in popularity of OpenClaw, they quickly launched MaxClaw and simultaneously released products like MiniMax Code.

Goldman Sachs points out that as industry competition shifts from one-off model capability comparisons to continuous product iteration and real commercial implementation, the importance of organizational efficiency and long-term ROI capability has significantly increased. Vendors able to achieve sustained investment returns will gain an advantage in the new round of competition.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market involves risks, investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the individual user’s special investment objectives, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific situation. Investments made accordingly are at the user’s own risk. ```