On March 12, Beluga Labs broke the news exclusively that both DeepSeek V4 and the latest iteration of the Hunyuan model, spearheaded by Yao Shunyu, are slated for release in April 2026. This announcement follows closely on the heels of OpenRouter’s launch of two enigmatic models, Healer Alpha and Hunter Alpha, on March 11, which have since fueled widespread speculation within the tech community regarding upcoming domestic AI advancements.

DeepSeek V4, a multimodal large-scale model, is poised to make significant strides in coding proficiency and long-term memory capabilities. Notably, it will be engineered for seamless integration with domestically produced chips, underscoring a strategic push towards self-reliance in AI hardware. In parallel, Yao Shunyu’s new Hunyuan model, boasting a parameter count in the vicinity of 30 billion, will concentrate its research efforts on enhancing long-context comprehension and agent usability, marking a substantial leap forward in these critical areas.