Computing Power Shortage Forces Kimi to Suggest Competitor

In an unusual show of industry solidarity, Moonshot AI's popular chatbot Kimi recently directed frustrated users to rival service DeepSeek when facing computing power shortages. The move came after weeks of intermittent outages that left many subscribers seeing error messages about overloaded servers.

Peak Hour Struggles Become Public Relations Win

"We're looking for computing power," Kimi's official account posted humorously on February 10th. "How about using DeepSeek first?" The disarmingly honest response quickly went viral on Chinese social media, with many praising its transparency.

Users had reported frequent messages stating: "Insufficient computing power during peak hours. Switched to K2.5 fast mode." Even premium subscribers found themselves temporarily downgraded as servers struggled with demand.

Behind the Scenes: An Industry-Wide Challenge

The incident sheds light on two critical developments:

• Exploding Popularity: Domestic AI services are attracting unprecedented user numbers following recent breakthroughs in Chinese-language model capabilities
• Resource Crunch: Even well-funded players face bottlenecks securing adequate high-performance computing infrastructure

Industry analysts note that while companies compete fiercely for users, they share common infrastructure headaches. "It's like restaurants sending customers next door when their kitchen gets backed up," said Beijing-based tech analyst Li Wei. "The gesture acknowledges reality while maintaining goodwill."

The computing shortage comes amid what some call China's "AI spring," with multiple domestic models reaching global benchmarks while avoiding direct comparisons to Western counterparts like ChatGPT.

What Comes Next?

The temporary workaround raises questions about long-term solutions:

• Will cloud providers accelerate capacity expansions?
• Could competitors establish formal resource-sharing agreements?
• How will users respond if bottlenecks persist?

For now, Kimi's team continues searching for additional computing resources while maintaining their unexpectedly gracious stance toward rivals - proving that even in cutthroat tech markets, there's room for pragmatism.

Key Points:

• Moonshot AI's Kimi faced recurring server overloads during peak usage periods
• Instead of generic error messages, the service humorously recommended competitor DeepSeek
• The response highlighted China's booming AI sector and shared infrastructure challenges
• Analysts see this as a sign of maturity in China's competitive LLM landscape