# Forty Four on the Index, One Fifth the Price: StepFun's Six Hundred Billion Parameter Bid at the Frontier, September 20, 2026

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dx-today-no-hype-podcast-news-about-ai-dx-6434212/forty-four-on-the-index-one-fifth-the-price-stepfun-s-six-hundred-billion-parameter-bid-at-the-frontier-september-20-2026
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Podcast: [DX Today | No-Hype Podcast & News About AI & DX](https://stenobird.com/podcast/dx-today-no-hype-podcast-news-about-ai-dx-6434212)
Published: 2026-09-20T10:45:08+00:00
Episode link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2207817/episodes/19832902-forty-four-on-the-index-one-fifth-the-price-stepfun-s-six-hundred-billion-parameter-bid-at-the-frontier-september-20-2026.mp3
Audio file: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2207817/episodes/19832902-forty-four-on-the-index-one-fifth-the-price-stepfun-s-six-hundred-billion-parameter-bid-at-the-frontier-september-20-2026.mp3
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Duration seconds: 817

## Resource

Forty Four on the Index, One Fifth the Price: StepFun's Six Hundred Billion Parameter Bid at the Frontier, September 20, 2026 Shanghai startup StepFun released Step 5 Preview, a six hundred billion parameter sparse mixture of experts model that ties Kimi K3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index while charging less than a fifth of the output price. Rick Spair and Laura dig into the architecture, the benchmark numbers, the verbosity problem hiding behind that attractive per token price...

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