The #1 AI Video Model No One Can Access — Yet.

HappyHorse 1.0 is Alibaba’s #1-ranked AI video model on the Artificial Analysis Video Arena. API access is scheduled to open April 30, 2026. We’re tracking every update so you don’t have to.

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The Numbers Speak for Themselves

Elo Rankings

1389

#1

Text-to-Video (No Audio)

1411

#1

Image-to-Video (No Audio)

1205

#2

Text-to-Video (With Audio)

1161

#2

Image-to-Video (With Audio)

Source: Artificial Analysis Video Arena, April 2026. Rankings based on blind Elo evaluations by community voters.

The Mystery Is (Mostly) Solved

Alibaba’s #1 Video Model, Explained

Here’s what we now know about HappyHorse 1.0:

An anonymous #1, then a 72-hour disappearance. HappyHorse-1.0 surfaced on the Artificial Analysis Video Arena in late March 2026, swept #1 in both Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video, then vanished from the leaderboard roughly three days later — with no API, weights, or paper to point to.

Source: Artificial Analysis (official announcement) →

Alibaba finally claimed it on April 10, 2026. The @AlibabaGroup account publicly congratulated @HappyHorseATH, confirming the model was built by the Future Life Lab team inside Taotian Group’s Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) innovation unit, led by Zhang Di — former VP at Kuaishou and technical lead on Kling AI.

Source: CNBC — Alibaba reveals HappyHorse →

Real specs, verified on the record. 15 billion parameters. A unified 40-layer self-attention Transformer that jointly generates video and synchronized audio. Native 1080p at 24fps. Inference benchmark: 38.4 seconds for a 5-second 1080p clip on a single NVIDIA H100.

Source: WaveSpeedAI technical breakdown →

Still nothing to download — yet. The team states “Everything is open,” but the official GitHub and Model Hub buttons still read “Coming soon.” API access is scheduled to open April 30, 2026. Any GitHub or HuggingFace repo currently using the HappyHorse name is unofficial.

Source: WaveSpeedAI — Is HappyHorse open source? →

How we got here

The HappyHorse 1.0 Timeline

From anonymous Arena entry to Alibaba’s officially claimed #1 video model — in under three weeks.

  1. Confirmed

    A mystery model shows up on the Arena

    An anonymous entry named "HappyHorse-1.0" — with a sibling "V2" variant — quietly appears on the Artificial Analysis Video Arena blind-test leaderboard. No company name, no paper, no landing page.

    Source: Brent Lynch — "Who is HappyHorse?" →
  2. Confirmed

    It sweeps #1 in Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video

    Within days, HappyHorse-1.0 climbs to #1 on both the Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video (No Audio) boards, beating Seedance 2.0 by ~60 Elo points in T2V and ~48 points in I2V. On the With-Audio boards it lands at #2.

    Source: Artificial Analysis (official) →
  3. Confirmed

    It disappears — and Reddit calls "vaporware"

    Without warning, the entries vanish from the Arena. With no API, weights, or code in sight, r/StableDiffusion threads start asking whether HappyHorse is real, delayed, or a pre-announcement stunt.

    Source: r/StableDiffusion discussion →
  4. Confirmed

    Alibaba officially claims the model

    The @AlibabaGroup account congratulates @HappyHorseATH, confirming HappyHorse-1.0 was built by the Future Life Lab team inside Taotian Group’s Alibaba Token Hub (ATH), led by Zhang Di (former Kuaishou VP and Kling AI technical lead).

    Source: Alibaba Group on X →
  5. Happening now

    Global media covers the reveal

    Bloomberg, CNBC, The Information, Yicai Global, heise online, Barchart, and The Business Times publish coverage within hours of the reveal. The AI video community immediately begins side-by-side comparisons against Seedance 2.0.

    Source: Bloomberg coverage →
  6. Upcoming

    Scheduled API access opens

    Alibaba has committed to opening the HappyHorse-1.0 API on April 30. Pricing, rate limits, and region availability have not yet been disclosed.

  7. Upcoming

    Promised open-source release

    The team states "Everything is open," but as of April 10 the GitHub and Model Hub buttons still read "Coming soon." No repository, weights, or license have been published yet. Any third-party repo currently using the HappyHorse name is unofficial.

Last updated April 10, 2026. We update this timeline whenever a new verified milestone lands.

Why Join the Waitlist?

What You Get

Day-one access alert. The moment HappyHorse 1.0 opens to the public — whether through an API, a hosted demo, or downloadable weights — you’ll be the first to know.

Weekly status updates. We monitor the leaderboard, community discussions, and official channels so you get a single, concise digest every week.

Exclusive benchmark comparisons. When the model becomes testable, waitlist members receive our side-by-side evaluations against Seedance 2.0, Kling 2.0, and other top models before anyone else.

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