The brief · 12 February 2026
GLM-5 was nipping at Claude's heels this week, and now MiniMax M2.5 is joining the conversation. Meanwhile, as Chinese open source accelerates, Germany is officially kicking off the AI Act timeline.
A Chinese open model hits 80.2% on SWE-Bench Verified, a level that recently rivaled top closed models. If you've been paying for Claude or GPT on coding tasks, there's now an open alternative worth serious consideration, especially on cost.
practitioners › M2.5 and M2.5-highspeed, released February 12, 2026, open license, 80.2% SWE-Bench Verified, significantly cheaper than comparable models.
www.minimax.io →Germany's federal cabinet approved the KI-MIG draft law, which writes the EU AI Act into national law. That means concrete rules are coming for companies using AI, not just an abstract European text sitting on the shelf. If you're running a German or European business, the compliance timeline just got real.
practitioners › The Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) becomes Germany's central coordinator for AI oversight, per cabinet approval on February 11-12, 2026.
Bundesregierung →