2026 AI Industry Narrative: Shaping the Future of Artificial Intelligence
2026 AI Industry Narrative: Shaping the Future of Artificial Intelligence
https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3855458983475842
Publish Date: 2026-06-16 07:02:00
Source Domain: eu.36kr.com
Introduction: Win the Pricing Power with Your Business Model
In 2026, AI companies are facing a more brutal test than just technology. When the gap between all models is only six months, what makes people believe that your future is worth betting on? The answer lies not in the laboratory, but in your business model.
NVIDIA has positioned itself as the mint of Tokens. OpenClaw has become the symbol of the open – source movement. Dark Side of the Moon has turned itself into the last stronghold of technological idealism. They are not just talking about the future; they are making themselves the synonyms of the future.
This chapter addresses one question: In the abyss of technological homogenization, how can AI companies win the pricing power with their business models?
Brand Narrative: Technology Is No Longer Scarce; What’s Scarce Is the Right to Define Technology
From 2025 to early 2026, a fact that many people overlooked emerged: the ability gap between top – tier models has shrunk to six to twelve months. Open – source models like DeepSeek, Qwen, and GLM can catch up with the leading edge of a closed – source model in just three months.
If models are no longer the moat, then what is? The answer is: who gets to decide how to define the field.
The dimension of competition has fundamentally shifted. The right to define has replaced technological capabilities as the new core of pricing. Whoever decides what the standards are, what the value units are, and what is compliant will hold the pricing power and valuation premium.
This may sound a bit abstract. Let’s look at three groups of stories.
Story One: NVIDIA – Treat Tokens as the Universal Currency
At the 2026 GTC conference, Jensen Huang stopped talking about chips and proposed a concept called the “Token factory”. His core argument boils down to one sentence: Data centers are no longer just warehouses for storing files; they are factories for producing Tokens.
What are Tokens? Every time AI generates an answer,…
