Chinese Open Models Enter OpenAI Enterprise Billing for the First Time: Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3 Join the Codex Enterprise Channel
According to multiple Chinese media reports, Baseten is among the first open-model inference providers in OpenAI's B2B marketplace: enterprises can call Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3 through Codex or the Responses API, billed against their existing OpenAI procurement commitments — the first time Chinese open models enter OpenAI enterprise billing.
Source: IT之家
What Happened
Per multiple Chinese media reports on September 30, 2026 (ITHome, CLS, 36Kr): US AI infrastructure company Baseten announced a partnership with OpenAI, becoming one of the first open-model inference providers in OpenAI's B2B marketplace.
- Enterprise users can call Kimi K3 (Moonshot AI), GLM 5.3 (Z.ai), and other Chinese open models through Codex or the Responses API
- Usage fees are billed directly against the enterprise's existing OpenAI procurement commitments — no new vendor onboarding
- This is the first time Chinese open models enter OpenAI's enterprise billing system
Data Security Commitments
- Baseten pledges all models run on US servers
- Zero data retention (ZDR) on all prompts
Context
- Kimi K3 launched in July 2026: 2.8 trillion parameters, MIT license, 1M-token context, native multimodality — currently the largest open-weight model by parameter count
- Amazon Bedrock had already adopted Kimi K3 under a revenue-share model; joining the Codex enterprise channel upgrades the go-global path once more: API access → cloud hosting → cloud revenue share → mainstream dev tools and enterprise procurement
- Commentators read this as AI competition shifting from raw model capability toward ecosystem entry points
Caveats
The story currently rests on Chinese-language media reporting — no official English announcement from Baseten or OpenAI has surfaced yet; partnership pricing and the number of onboarded enterprises remain undisclosed. The GLM-5.3 we track is on the reported list; we will follow up as official confirmation lands.