Mysterious reasoning model Ox Alpha sparks frenzy over who built it

Who’s behind the new ‘stealth model’ Ox Alpha?

A free reasoning model called Ox Alpha appeared on OpenRouter Thursday, described as built for coding and sustained agentic work. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison called it 'very impressive' on X. The listing says it's a 'stealth model' from an anonymous third-party provider. Speculation centers on two theories: an unreleased GLM model from Chinese company Zhipu, or a hidden version of Microsoft's MAI. Reddit and X are split, but the article offers no hard evidence—only community guesses.

Why it matters: Anonymous reasoning model lands with a Patrick Collison endorsement and a clear code/agent focus. Speculation points to Zhipu or DeepSeek — enough signal and mystery to matter. Held at 78 because all info is external guesswork; the post didn't confirm the developer.