AI race # Who is winning the AI race? > OpenAI leads the AI race as of October 2026 with GPT-6 Astra at #1. US labs hold 39 of the top 50 ranked models and Chinese labs 11; in the top 10 the split is 10 to 0. - Canonical page: https://noometry.com/ai-race - Last updated: 2026-10-10 - Title: The AI Race (October 2026): Which Lab Is Ahead? | Noometry OpenAI leads the AI race as of October 2026 with GPT-6 Astra at #1. US labs hold 39 of the top 50 ranked models and Chinese labs 11; in the top 10 the split is 10 to 0. Last verified October 10, 2026 ## Top-50 models by region Models in the Noometry top 50 by lab region 1. United States 39 2. China 11 3. 010203040 ## Labs ranked by their best model | Lab | Best model | Rank | Score | In top 10 | In top 50 | Releases, 90 days | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [OpenAI](https://noometry.com/providers/openai) | [GPT-6 Astra](https://noometry.com/models/gpt-6-astra) | #1 | 70.8 | 5 | 14 | 4 | | [Anthropic](https://noometry.com/providers/anthropic) | [Claude Fable 5.1](https://noometry.com/models/claude-fable-5-1) | #2 | 69.0 | 5 | 11 | 5 | | [![](/logos/google.svg) Google](https://noometry.com/providers/google) | [Gemini 3.8 Flash](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-8-flash) | #11 | 61.8 | 0 | 8 | 6 | | [Moonshot AI](https://noometry.com/providers/moonshot) | [Kimi K3](https://noometry.com/models/kimi-k3) | #15 | 59.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | | [xAI](https://noometry.com/providers/xai) | [Grok 4.6](https://noometry.com/models/grok-4-6) | #21 | 56.9 | 0 | 3 | 2 | | [![](/logos/alibaba.svg) Alibaba (Qwen)](https://noometry.com/providers/alibaba) | [Qwen3.8 Max](https://noometry.com/models/qwen3-8-max) | #22 | 56.8 | 0 | 3 | 6 | | [Z.ai (Zhipu)](https://noometry.com/providers/zai) | [GLM-5.3](https://noometry.com/models/glm-5-3) | #26 | 54.8 | 0 | 3 | 3 | | [![](/logos/meta.svg) Meta](https://noometry.com/providers/meta) | [Muse Spark 1.3](https://noometry.com/models/muse-spark-1-3) | #27 | 54.8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | | [![](/logos/deepseek.svg) DeepSeek](https://noometry.com/providers/deepseek) | [DeepSeek V4 Pro](https://noometry.com/models/deepseek-v4-pro) | #31 | 54.3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | | [Xiaomi](https://noometry.com/providers/xiaomi) | [MiMo-V2.6-Pro](https://noometry.com/models/mimo-v2-6-pro) | #49 | 50.3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | | [![](/logos/stepfun.svg) StepFun](https://noometry.com/providers/stepfun) | [Step 5 Preview](https://noometry.com/models/step-5-preview) | #58 | 47.9 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [T Thinking Machines Lab](https://noometry.com/providers/thinking-machines) | [Inkling-Small](https://noometry.com/models/inkling-small) | #63 | 46.5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | | [![](/logos/tencent.svg) Tencent](https://noometry.com/providers/tencent) | [Hy4 preview](https://noometry.com/models/hy4-preview) | #73 | 45.3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [Amazon](https://noometry.com/providers/amazon) | [Amazon Nova Experimental Chat 26 02 10](https://noometry.com/models/amazon-nova-experimental-chat-26-02-10) | #77 | 44.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/baidu.svg) Baidu](https://noometry.com/providers/baidu) | [ERNIE 5.1](https://noometry.com/models/ernie-5-1) | #83 | 43.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/minimax.svg) MiniMax](https://noometry.com/providers/minimax) | [MiniMax-M3](https://noometry.com/models/minimax-m3) | #85 | 43.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/bytedance.svg) ByteDance Seed](https://noometry.com/providers/bytedance) | [Seed 2.0 Pro](https://noometry.com/models/dola-seed-2-0-pro) | #96 | 43.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/mistral.svg) Mistral AI](https://noometry.com/providers/mistral) | [Mistral Large 4](https://noometry.com/models/mistral-large-4) | #99 | 43.1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [![](/logos/nvidia.svg) NVIDIA](https://noometry.com/providers/nvidia) | [Nemotron 3 Ultra](https://noometry.com/models/nemotron-3-ultra) | #113 | 42.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [Meituan](https://noometry.com/providers/meituan) | [Longcat Flash Chat](https://noometry.com/models/longcat-flash-chat) | #120 | 42.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/upstage.svg) Upstage](https://noometry.com/providers/upstage) | [Solar Pro4](https://noometry.com/models/solar-pro4) | #121 | 42.1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [IBM](https://noometry.com/providers/ibm) | [Granite 4.2 30b](https://noometry.com/models/granite-4-2-30b) | #130 | 41.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/ai2.svg) Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)](https://noometry.com/providers/ai2) | [Olmo 3.1 32b Instruct](https://noometry.com/models/olmo-3-1-32b-instruct) | #168 | 39.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [Inception](https://noometry.com/providers/inception) | [Mercury 2](https://noometry.com/models/mercury-2) | #175 | 39.1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [![](/logos/arcee.svg) Arcee AI](https://noometry.com/providers/arcee) | [Trinity Large Thinking](https://noometry.com/models/trinity-large-thinking) | #185 | 38.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/perplexity.svg) Perplexity](https://noometry.com/providers/perplexity) | [Sonar](https://noometry.com/models/sonar) | #187 | 38.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [01.AI](https://noometry.com/providers/01-ai) | [Yi-Lightning](https://noometry.com/models/yi-lightning) | #209 | 37.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/cohere.svg) Cohere](https://noometry.com/providers/cohere) | [Command A](https://noometry.com/models/command-a) | #215 | 36.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/microsoft.svg) Microsoft](https://noometry.com/providers/microsoft) | [Wizardlm 70b](https://noometry.com/models/wizardlm-70b) | #249 | 33.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/poolside.svg) Poolside](https://noometry.com/providers/poolside) | [Laguna M.1](https://noometry.com/models/laguna-m-1) | #256 | 32.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | [![](/logos/tii.svg) Technology Innovation Institute](https://noometry.com/providers/tii) | [Falcon-180B](https://noometry.com/models/falcon-180b) | #260 | 32.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | [![](/logos/databricks.svg) Databricks](https://noometry.com/providers/databricks) | [DBRX](https://noometry.com/models/dbrx) | #311 | 29.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | [How the lead has changed since 2023 →](https://noometry.com/llm-rankings-over-time) ## Frequently asked questions ### Who is winning the AI race? OpenAI leads the AI race as of October 2026 with GPT-6 Astra at #1. US labs hold 39 of the top 50 ranked models and Chinese labs 11; in the top 10 the split is 10 to 0. ### Is China catching up in AI models? Chinese labs have 11 models in the Noometry top 50 and 0 in the top 10 as of October 2026. Their best models are mostly open-weight, which the US frontier mostly is not.