Mystery AI model widely believed to be of DeepSeek V4 turns out to be Xiaomi, describes itself as 'a Chinese AI model with ...'

A mysterious AI model which appeared last week on the developer platform OpenRouter has now sparked widespread speculation that it was the long-waited DeepSeek V4. According to a report by Reuters, the model called Hunter Alpha, advertised cutting-edge specifications including a 1-trillion parameter scale and a 1-million-token context window features that closely matched expectations for DeepSeek’s next generation system.

Given DeepSeek’s disruptive impact on global tech markets with its earlier models, many assumed the anonymous release was a stealth test of V4.

Xiaomi confirms Hunter Alpha model

The report by Reuters further adds that Xiaomi confirmed that Hunter Alpha was in fact an early internal test build of MiMo-V2-Pro which was developed by its AI team MiMo which was led by former DeepSeek researcher Leo Fuli. The company also described MiMo-V2-Pro as a flagship model designed to serve as the ‘brain’ of AI agents and tools which are capable of executing complex tasks with minimal human supervision.

Luo Fuli also acknowledged the surprise launch in a post shared on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) calling it a “quiet ambush” driven by the rapid shift from chatbots to agent-based systems. She added: “People ask why we move so fast. I saw it firsthand building DeepSeek R1.”Hunter Alpha quickly gained a lot of traction on OpenRouter, surpassing one trillion tokens in usage and topping the platform’s leaderboard.

Its free access and advanced reasoning capabilities made it stand out among frontier models, which typically with high costs at scale. Xiaomi announced that MiMo-V2-Pro will partner with five major agent frameworks, including OpenClaw, offering developers worldwide a week of free access.

The news sent Xiaomi’s Hong Kong-listed shares up 5.8% on Thursday.

Why the confusion

During early tests, Hunter Alpha described itself as “a Chinese AI model primarily trained in Chinese” with a knowledge cutoff of May 2025 — the same cutoff reported for DeepSeek’s chatbot.

Its refusal to identify its creator further fueled speculation.Industry experts said the timing and specifications made the DeepSeek connection plausible. “The combination that stood out was Hunter Alpha’s 1-million-token context paired with reasoning capability and free access,” noted engineer Nabil Haouam, who builds AI agent systems.

Stealth testing trend

Anonymous model launches are becoming common in China’s AI sector. Platforms like OpenRouter allow developers to test new systems without attribution, gathering unbiased feedback before official announcements. Similar stealth releases have occurred before, including Pony Alpha, later revealed to be part of Zhipu AI’s GLM-5 system.With Xiaomi now confirmed as the developer, Hunter Alpha marks the company’s bold entry into the frontier AI race — signaling that competition in China’s rapidly evolving agent ecosystem is intensifying.