Xiaomi, yes, the phone company, just slashed the price of its MiMo-V2.5 AI model API by up to 99%. Not a sale, not a promo code, not a limited-time coupon panic. Permanent.

In human terms, the claim is that developers can run huge volumes of AI requests for an amount of money that makes old API pricing look like it arrived wearing a tuxedo.

DeepSeek helped start the cheap-model brawl, and Xiaomi just walked in with the kind of price cut that makes everyone recheck the decimal point.

The real question is where this ends. By Q3, someone may announce a model that is free. By Q4, someone else may announce a model that pays you emotionally, spiritually, or through suspicious platform credits.

* Reported facts should be source-backed. Hype commentary is editorial.