State of Open Models: Summer 2026 Observations
Article image or reusable cover for Hugging Face
Hugging Face reports that the number of models and datasets on their platform is growing rapidly — models increased from 2.43 to 2.96 million during the period.
Chinese laboratories dominate the largest open models in 2026, often with billions of parameters larger than American counterparts. Notably, many Chinese labs skip small models entirely and go directly to gigantic versions, while companies like Alibaba and Tencent release entire spectrums. A significant gap exists between what developers actually download — often older, stable small models — and what receives the most recognition — the new, large frontier models.
Likes are the right instrument for reading what the field is excited about, downloads for reading what it currently depends on.
Vibekollen prepared this summary with AI from the original publication. The content belongs to Hugging Face.
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