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AI Wars Heat Up: Cheaper MiniMax Challenges Claude Opus

MiniMax, a Chinese AI startup, has unveiled its new M2.5 language model, promising near state-of-the-art performance at a fraction of the cost of competitors like Claude Opus. The announcement, made on February 12, 2026, has sent ripples through the AI industry, with the company claiming its API and partner services will make high-end AI significantly more affordable.

The M2.5 model comes in two variants, though details about the exact license type and terms, as well as the code and weights, have not yet been released, according to VentureBeat. The company's focus on affordability is a direct response to the high costs associated with using powerful AI models. "For the last few years, using the worlds most powerful AI was like hiring an expensive consultant – it was brilliant, but you watched the clock (and the token count) constantly," VentureBeat reported.

In related news, Google Chrome launched Web Model Context Protocol (WebMCP) in early preview on February 12, 2026, as reported by VentureBeat. This web standard, developed jointly by Google and Microsoft and incubated through the W3C's Web Machine Learning community group, aims to transform websites into structured tools for AI agents. WebMCP is designed to allow AI agents to navigate websites more efficiently, eliminating the need for them to scrape raw HTML or rely on screenshots.

Meanwhile, middle-class Americans are facing rising costs associated with the AI boom. Goldman Sachs analysts warned that increased electricity bills and higher business production costs are likely to drive up the prices of food, transportation, and clothing, according to Fortune. Data-center deals exceeded $61 billion in 2025 as hyperscalers expanded their computational power. The analysts forecasted that consumer electricity inflation would jump 6% from 2026 to 2027 before decelerating to 3% the following year.

In other news, four astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station after a predawn launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 13, 2026, according to NPR News. The SpaceX Crew-12 mission includes NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot.

AI-Assisted Journalism

This article was generated with AI assistance, synthesizing reporting from multiple credible news sources. Our editorial team reviews AI-generated content for accuracy.

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