Jefferies' research report on September 16 pointed out that competition in the AI large model market is intensifying, with four new models with limited funding entering the global top 14 language model rankings in September. Some institutions have accumulated only about $20 million in funding. Analysts believe that technologies such as distillation have lowered the R&D threshold, leading to pressure on API prices. For example, Apodex 1.1's mixed API price is $0.3 per million tokens, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has dropped to $0.2. This puts new pressure on the AI supply chain, which faces high capital expenditures and uncertain returns. The industry is shifting from simply pursuing intelligence to focusing more on efficiency.