Kimi K2 Thinking: a Worthy Opponent for GPT-5? – AI News – #2 November 2025

The launch of GPT-5 from OpenAI undoubtedly set a new standard in the world of artificial intelligence. However, the dust from this event has barely settled, and already an extremely strong competitor has appeared on the horizon. We are talking about Kimi K2 Thinking from the Chinese lab Moonshot AI.

This is not another chatbot iteration, but a powerful “thinking agent” based on open-source code, which in key next-generation benchmarks directly challenges the freshly anointed leader. Is GPT-5’s dominance threatened before it has truly begun?

Kimi K2 Thinking fundamentally differs from most models. It was designed not so much for conversation, but for action. It is a specialized “reasoning agent,” built to think step by step and actively use tools (such as a browser or Python interpreter) to solve complex problems.

At the core of Kimi K2 lies an advanced Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture. The model possesses a total of 1 trillion (1T) parameters, but during processing (inference) it activates “only” 32 billion (32B) of them. This is a brilliant move that allows for the performance of giant models while maintaining much lower costs and faster operation.

Additionally, it features a huge context window of 256K tokens and native INT4 quantization, which further speeds up its operation in real-world applications.

The greatest innovation of Kimi K2 Thinking is its ability for “interleaved thinking.” The model can independently, without human supervision, perform between 200 and 300 consecutive tool invocations.

This means Kimi K2 can receive a complex task (e.g., “Research market X, find 5 competitors, and write a SWOT analysis for each”), then independently plan, search the web for information, analyze data (e.g., writing and running Python code), and based on gathered results, formulate conclusions. All in hundreds of logically connected steps.

In one test, the model successfully solved a doctoral-level math problem by performing 23 consecutive steps of reasoning and tool invocation.

The launch of Kimi K2 Thinking is key not only because of its specifications but primarily because of what it signals for the entire AI industry, which has just begun to discover the capabilities of GPT-5.

Until recently, there was a belief that while open-source models are great, the “closed frontier” set by OpenAI and Anthropic is insurmountable. The launch of GPT-5 was supposed to be the ultimate proof of this.

Meanwhile, Kimi K2 Thinking shows that this dominance is not absolute. In key next-generation benchmarks measuring agent capabilities, Kimi K2 set new world records, beating all previous competitors and directly challenging GPT-5:

This proves that in the most complex and future-oriented applications, open-source models can compete on equal footing with the latest closed giants.

Kimi K2 is further evidence that top-level AI innovation is no longer the exclusive domain of American giants. Labs from China, such as Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, and Qwen (Alibaba), prove that they have not only caught up with the elite but in many respects are beginning to surpass it.

Moreover, Chinese labs release their models much faster. Kimi K2 appeared right after GPT-5, immediately putting pressure on the market leader.

This launch is a symbolic signal that the era when AI was mostly judged by “conversation quality” is coming to an end. The future belongs to AI agents – models capable of acting, planning, and carrying out multi-step tasks.

Both GPT-5 and Kimi K2 Thinking are built precisely for this purpose. Kimi K2’s excellent results in coding, creative writing (the model is described as more “human” and empathetic), and analytical thinking prove it is ready for real, complex work.

The launch of GPT-5 was a major event, but Kimi K2 Thinking has proven that the AI leader’s throne will not belong to anyone permanently. We face a new reality in which open-source models are no longer just “good enough.” They are now at the absolute cutting edge, setting new standards in key future areas such as agent reasoning.

Will the new model exert price pressure on competitors? This tool, matching or surpassing closed counterparts, will create great pressure to lower API prices by OpenAI and Anthropic. Access to state-of-the-art technology will become cheaper and more widespread. Furthermore, thanks to Kimi K2’s open nature, developers worldwide will be able to build their own specialized AI agents for marketing automation, coding, or customer service—without relying on big corporate APIs.

For OpenAI, competition has just become very real, and for all of us—users and creators—access to breakthrough AI technology has just become much easier. Want to stay updated on AI model developments and news from this world? Subscribe to Delante’s newsletter!

Source of information about Kimi K2 Thinking: https://moonshotai.github.io/Kimi-K2/thinking.html