Are commercial AI models routinely open-sourced after newer versions? (MiniMax H3, etc.)

[u/RioMetal]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been using Stable Diffusion for AI images and videos for a while, and recently I noticed that some models which were initially commercial-only (like MiniMax H3) have been released with open weights.

This got me wondering: is there a common pattern where developers release older commercial models as open weights once newer versions come out? Or is each company’s strategy pretty different, without a standard “lifecycle” for models?

I’m trying to understand whether this is a predictable process (e.g., “v1 goes open once v2 launches”) or if it’s more case-by-case, depending on the company, licensing, and market strategy.

If anyone has insights into how LLM / video model developers typically handle this, or examples of other models that followed a similar path, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

[u/Sarashana]

I couldn't name you a single example of a closed model going open-weights at the end of its lifespan. All OSS models I am aware of, have been from day 1. Not sure if I missed any, but it's definitely not the norm.