Alibaba plans to require major users of its next Qwen open-source model to share part of their revenue, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Open source is often seen as free, but that is not always the case. The Kimi K3 licence includes a provision requiring a separate commercial agreement with Moonshot if the model is offered as a paid service and annual revenue exceeds $20 million.

Alibaba also plans to introduce a similar mechanism for its open-source models soon, according to the Reuters report.

Alibaba has so far charged fees for using its cloud-hosted models, but has allowed most open-source models used in customers' own data centres for free.

Even after the U.S. White House singled out Moonshot over allegations of stealing Anthropic technology, U.S. companies have continued to sign agreements to share with developers revenue generated from Chinese models.

The Kimi K3 licence requires partners to share revenue, up to 30 percent, Reuters reported, citing one of the sources. Alibaba also plans to demand revenue sharing, but the rate is not yet clear because discussions are under way, the two sources said.