K2-Horizon-375B-A23B (mid_4_6000)
MBZUAI IFM · base checkpoint
Describes tag mid_4_6000, the final Midtraining Stage 4 checkpoint (before RL and SFT). Stage 4 trains on a mix shifted toward agentic and reasoning SFT data, so this is not a pure pretraining checkpoint (that is pretrain_ph2_240000, at 8K context).
Open in the comparison table Hugging Face ↗ Blog ↗
KV calculations use one sequence at 131,072 tokens and 16-bit cache elements. They include bounded sliding-window caches. This is retained cache payload, not peak prefill memory. The comparison table also offers sourced mixed-precision layouts, including quantization scales.
Release
- Released
2026-09-03
Source: blog · ifm.ai/blog/k2 (Wayback snapshot 2026-09-03); header
September 3, 2026
Date the weights (or, if earlier, the technical report) were first made public, YYYY-MM-DD, as dated by the publisher. A Hugging Face repository creation date is used only when no dated publisher page exists, with a note.
- License
apache-2.0
Source: model-card · README.md; YAML front matter
license: apache-2.0
License of the released weights as declared by the publisher (model card metadata or license file), e.g. apache-2.0, mit, or the name of a custom license.
- Input modalities
text
Inferred from the source; see the explanation below.
Source: model-card · README front matter
pipeline_tag: text-generation
Card tags the checkpoint text-generation; config declares no vision or audio tower (K2HorizonForCausalLM).
Input modalities of the released checkpoint as the publisher states them, from: text, image, video, audio, joined with ' + ' in that order ("text", "text + image + video").
Parameters
- Total params
375B parameters
Source: model-card · README.md; introduction
a sparse Mixture-of-Experts model that stores 375B parameters and runs 23B per token
Total parameter count as reported by the publisher. See params.note for whether embeddings, MTP heads or vision towers are included.
- Active params
23B parameters
Source: model-card · README.md; introduction
a sparse Mixture-of-Experts model that stores 375B parameters and runs 23B per token
Parameters used per token in the forward pass, as reported by the publisher.
- Active non-embedding (stated)
Not disclosed
Active parameters excluding the input embedding and the output head (unembedding). Stated by the publisher, or computed from params.active by subtracting vocab × d_model for each of the embedding and output head that params.active is stated to include (basis inferred, note with the arithmetic). Not disclosed when the scope of params.active is not stated.
- Counted total params
379.2B parameters
Calculated: embedding + output head + all experts + other weights, IFM/K2-Horizon-375B-A23B@7d22cc0 safetensors headers; reproduces stated total (backbone) and active (non-embedding)
Parameters of the text backbone counted from the released checkpoint's safetensors headers (embedding, output head, all experts and other weights; excluding MTP modules, vision/audio towers and n-gram lookup tables). Shown only when the counts reproduce the publisher's stated total and active parameters within 5% under some scope.
- Counted embedding + head
3.08B parameters
Calculated: input embedding + output head, IFM/K2-Horizon-375B-A23B@7d22cc0 safetensors headers
Input embedding plus output head (once if tied), counted from the checkpoint.
- Non-emb. params (counted)
376.1B parameters
Calculated: dense + routed backbone weights; excludes input embedding, output head, lookup tables, MTP and other modalities, IFM/K2-Horizon-375B-A23B@7d22cc0 safetensors headers; reproduces stated total (backbone) and active (non-embedding)
Language backbone weights excluding input embeddings, output head, lookup/Engram tables, MTP modules and vision/audio towers. Equals params.counted_total minus params.counted_embedding. Same validation as params.counted_total.
- Largest layer (counted)
6.464B parameters
Calculated: max(sum of dense and routed weights sharing a full layers.<index> tensor path), all experts included, IFM/K2-Horizon-375B-A23B@7d22cc0 safetensors headers
Largest group of language-backbone weights sharing a full layers.<index> tensor path, including every routed expert. Excludes lookup/Engram tables, embeddings, output head, MTP and other modalities. Hybrid checkpoints may store mixers and FFNs as separate layers. All-gather volume also depends on wrapping, sharding and dtype.
- Active non-emb. (counted)
23.59B parameters
Calculated: non-expert weights + routed experts × 8/192, excluding embedding and output head, IFM/K2-Horizon-375B-A23B@7d22cc0 safetensors headers; reproduces stated total (backbone) and active (non-embedding)
Active parameters per token excluding the input embedding and output head, counted from the checkpoint as all non-expert weights plus routed-expert weights × top_k / experts. Same validation as params.counted_total.
Shape
- Layers
61
Source: config · /num_hidden_layers
Number of transformer blocks in the main backbone (attention or token mixer plus FFN), excluding MTP modules.
- d_model
6,144
Source: config · /hidden_size
Residual stream width.
- Vocab
250,624
Source: config · /vocab_size
Embedding table rows (vocab_size in config, may include padding).
- Tied embeddings
No
Source: config · /tie_word_embeddings
Input embedding and output head share weights.
- d_model / layers
100.721
Calculated: d_model / layers
Width-to-depth ratio, d_model divided by the number of blocks.
Attention
- Token mixers
GQA
Source: config · config.json; num_attention_heads, num_key_value_heads
"num_key_value_heads": 8
48 query heads share 8 KV heads; sliding_window null, no MoVA experts (/mova_num_experts 0).
Token-mixing layer types in the backbone, e.g. GQA, MLA, SWA, Gated DeltaNet, Mamba-2, DSA (DeepSeek sparse attention).
- Layer layout
61 GQA
Source: config · config.json; num_hidden_layers, use_sliding_window
"use_sliding_window": false
Token-mixer order, summarized as a pattern or layer positions. The fact's optional sequence lists each mixer in order; a ratio alone does not establish the order. Auxiliary prediction modules and standalone FFNs are excluded.
- Global-attention layers
61
Source: config · /num_hidden_layers
Layers whose KV cache grows with full context (dense or sparse global attention, MLA). Excludes sliding-window and linear/recurrent layers.
- Query heads
48
Source: config · /num_attention_heads
Query heads in the global-attention layers.
- KV heads
8
Source: config · /num_key_value_heads
Key/value heads in the global-attention layers. Not applicable to MLA, whose cache is a shared latent.
- Heads × head dim
6,144
Calculated: heads × head_dim
attn.heads × attn.head_dim, the query projection width of global layers.
- Q heads / KV head
6
Calculated: heads / kv_heads
attn.heads divided by attn.kv_heads in global layers.
- QK head dim
128
Source: config · /head_dim
Query/key dimension per head in global-attention layers (for MLA, nope + rope dims).
- Positional encoding
partial RoPE (64 of 128 QK dims)
Source: code · modeling_k2_horizon.py; K2HorizonAttention.forward
split_size_or_sections=[self.rope_head_dim, self.head_dim - self.rope_head_dim],
rope_head_dim is config /rope_head_dim (64); the remaining 64 dims per head carry no position.
Positional scheme in global layers: RoPE, partial RoPE, NoPE, or mixed per layer type.
- RoPE base
10,000,000
Source: config · /rope_parameters/rope_theta
RoPE base frequency of the global layers at release.
- Rotary fraction
0.5
Inferred from the source; see the explanation below.
Source: config · config.json; rope_head_dim, head_dim
"rope_head_dim": 64
rope_head_dim 64 divided by head_dim 128.
Fraction of each head's QK dimensions that are rotated.
- QK norm
No
Source: config · /query_key_norm
Queries and keys are normalized per head before the dot product.
- QKV bias
No
Source: config · /attention_bias
Query/key/value projections have bias terms.
Feed-forward
- Activation
SwiGLU
Source: code · modeling_k2_horizon.py; K2HorizonMLP.forward
down_proj = self.down_proj(self.act_fn(self.gate_proj(x)) * self.up_proj(x))
act_fn is SiLU (/hidden_act); dense FFN, routed and shared experts all use K2HorizonMLP.
FFN activation (SwiGLU, GeGLU, ...).
- Dense FFN dim
16,384
Source: config · /intermediate_size
Intermediate width of the dense FFN layers that are actually executed.
- FFN bias
No
Source: code · modeling_k2_horizon.py; K2HorizonMLP.__init__
self.gate_proj = nn.Linear(self.hidden_size, self.intermediate_size, bias=False)
FFN projections have bias terms.
- Dense FFN / d_model
2.66667
Calculated: ffn.dim / d_model
ffn.dim divided by shape.d_model.
Mixture of experts
- Routed experts
192
Source: config · /num_experts
Routed experts per MoE layer.
- Experts per token
8
Source: config · /num_experts_per_tok
Routed experts selected per token.
- Expert dim
1,792
Source: config · /moe_intermediate_size
Intermediate width of one routed expert.
- Leading dense layers
3
Source: config · /mlp_only_layers | len
Layers 0, 1, 2 use the 16384-wide dense FFN; decoder_sparse_step 1 makes every later layer MoE.
Number of initial blocks that use a dense FFN instead of MoE.
- Router score
sigmoid
Source: config · /router_score_func
Gating function over expert logits (softmax, sigmoid).
- Load balancing
per-expert bias for top-k selection only (update rate 1e-3)
Source: code · xllm/models/transformer.py; ConfStore["k2-horizon-375B-a23B"]
num_experts=192, num_activated_experts=8, num_shared_experts=1, expert_inter_dim=1792, moe_router_score_func='sigmoid', moe_router_bias=True, moe_router_bias_update_rate=1e-3,
HF code adds gate.bias (config moe_gate_bias) to scores for selection only; whether the 375B run also used an auxiliary loss is not stated (config router_aux_loss_coef 1e-4 is a loader value).
Load-balancing method, with coefficients where disclosed.
- Routed scaling factor
2.5
Source: config · /router_scaling_factor
Multiplier applied to the combined routed-expert output (routed_scaling_factor).
- Renormalize top-k
Yes
Source: config · /norm_topk_prob
Selected expert weights are renormalized to sum to 1.
- Expert dim / d_model
0.291667
Calculated: moe.expert_dim / d_model
moe.expert_dim divided by shape.d_model.
- Sparsity (experts / top-k)
24
Calculated: experts / top_k
Routed experts divided by experts selected per token.
- Active / total
0.0613333
Calculated: params.active / params.total
params.active divided by params.total.
Multi-token prediction
- MTP depth
0
Inferred from the source; see the explanation below.
Source: code · xllm/models/transformer.py; TransformerOutputLayer.forward
loss = vocab_parallel_cross_entropy(logits, y)
xLLM, the training code, has no MTP implementation; the loss is next-token cross-entropy, and the checkpoint has no MTP weights.
Additional future tokens predicted during pretraining (0 when the model was trained without MTP).
Normalization and stability
- Norm
RMSNorm
Source: code · modeling_k2_horizon.py; K2HorizonDecoderLayer.__init__
self.input_layernorm = K2HorizonRMSNorm(
layernorm_num_groups 1: one normalization group over d_model.
Normalization layer type in the blocks.
- Norm placement
pre
Source: code · modeling_k2_horizon.py; K2HorizonDecoderLayer.forward
hidden_states = self.input_layernorm(hidden_states)
Pre-norm, post-norm, or sandwich (pre and post).
- Norm epsilon
1e-06
Source: config · /rms_norm_eps
Epsilon of the block normalization layers.
Context length
- Pretraining context
8.192K tokens
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Pretraining — Phase 1 | 211000 | 7.08T | 8K
Sequence length of the main pretraining stage.
- Trained context
524.3K tokens
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Midtraining — Stage 3 | 3500 | 117B | 512K | Context extension.
512K = 524,288 tokens (Highlights).
Longest sequence length trained on after context extension.
- Advertised context
524.3K tokens
Source: model-card · README.md; Highlights
Native 524,288-token context from the midtraining stages onward.
config max_position_embeddings 524288.
Longest context the publisher says the model supports, possibly beyond trained length via RoPE scaling.
- Extension method
8K → 32K (1.09T) → 128K (503B) → 512K (117B, then 201B with agentic/reasoning SFT data)
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Midtraining — Stage 1 | 32500 | 1.09T | 32K | Context extension.
RoPE base raised with length: config rope_theta 500000 at branch pretrain_ph2_240000, 1e6 at mid_1_32500, 1e7 from mid_2_15000; no RoPE scaling (rope_type default).
How context was extended (stages, RoPE base change, YaRN factor).
Pretraining recipe
- Pretraining tokens
17.04T tokens
Inferred from the source; see the explanation below.
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview
Token budgets cover only the additional training in that stage or phase.
Sum of the per-stage budgets quoted in train.stages (7.08T + 8.05T + 1.09T + 503B + 117B + 201B) through mid_4_6000; includes the 201B Stage 4 tokens with SFT data in the mix.
Tokens seen in pretraining including annealing and context extension, as reported.
- Optimizer
Not disclosed
Optimizer used for the bulk of parameters.
- Peak LR
Not disclosed
Peak learning rate of the main pretraining stage.
- Final LR
Not disclosed
Learning rate at the end of the decay.
- LR schedule
Not disclosed
Learning-rate schedule shape with phase boundaries.
- Warmup
Not disclosed
Warmup length in steps or tokens.
- Batch size
~33.5M tokens
Inferred from the source; see the explanation below.
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Pretraining — Phase 2 | 240000 | 8.05T | 8K
8.05T / 240,000 steps (Phase 1: 7.08T / 211,000 steps gives the same); sequences per batch and any ramp not stated.
Global batch size, including any batch-size ramp: sequences × sequence length (token total), or the token total alone when only that is stated.
- Batch (tokens)
33.5M tokens
Inferred from the source; see the explanation below.
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Pretraining — Phase 2 | 240000 | 8.05T | 8K
8.05T tokens / 240,000 steps, to the card's 3-significant-figure precision.
Global batch size in tokens during the main pretraining stage, after any ramp (sequences × sequence length when stated in sequences, marked inferred).
- Weight decay
Not disclosed
Decoupled weight decay coefficient.
- Adam betas
Not disclosed
(beta1, beta2) of the Adam-family optimizer or its AdamW fallback.
- Grad clip
Not disclosed
Global gradient-norm clipping threshold.
- Training precision
Not disclosed
Matmul precision of pretraining (BF16, FP8 recipe, NVFP4 recipe) with the scaling granularity where disclosed. Never inferred from the released checkpoint dtype.
- Data mix
Phase 2 continues on newer and better data; Midtraining Stage 4 shifts the mix toward agentic and reasoning SFT data
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Continued context extension from Stage 3, with the data mix shifted toward agentic and reasoning SFT data.
Pretraining data composition as disclosed (domain shares, synthetic fraction, repetition).
- Stages
pretraining-phase-1
- Tokens
- 7080000000000
- Seq len
- 8192
- Steps
- 211000
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Pretraining — Phase 1 | 211000 | 7.08T | 8K | Pretraining.
pretraining-phase-2
- Tokens
- 8050000000000
- Seq len
- 8192
- Steps
- 240000
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Pretraining — Phase 2 | 240000 | 8.05T | 8K | Continued pretraining from Phase 1, with newer and better data.
Continued from Phase 1 with newer and better data.
midtraining-1
- Tokens
- 1090000000000
- Seq len
- 32768
- Steps
- 32500
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Midtraining — Stage 1 | 32500 | 1.09T | 32K | Context extension.
Context extension.
midtraining-2
- Tokens
- 503000000000
- Seq len
- 131072
- Steps
- 15000
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Midtraining — Stage 2 | 15000 | 503B | 128K | Context extension.
Context extension.
midtraining-3
- Tokens
- 117000000000
- Seq len
- 524288
- Steps
- 3500
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Midtraining — Stage 3 | 3500 | 117B | 512K | Context extension.
Context extension.
midtraining-4
- Tokens
- 201000000000
- Seq len
- 524288
- Steps
- 6000
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Midtraining — Stage 4 | 6000 | 201B | 512K | Continued context extension from Stage 3, with the data mix shifted toward agentic and reasoning SFT data.
Mix shifted toward agentic and reasoning SFT data; final checkpoint is tag mid_4_6000.
Source: model-card · README.md; Training Overview table
Ordered pretraining stages. Each item: name, tokens, seq_len, lr, batch_tokens, batch_sequences, steps, note, quote, and source when it differs from the fact's source.
Scaling & HP transfer
- Tokens / param
45.4427
Calculated: train.tokens / params.total
train.tokens divided by params.total.
- Tokens / active param (non-embedding)
722.389
Calculated: train.tokens / params.counted_active_non_embedding
train.tokens divided by params.counted_active_non_embedding, or by the stated params.active_non_embedding when there is no validated checkpoint count.
KV cache
- KV bytes / token
249,856 bytes
Calculated: kv.bytes_at_context / 131072 tokens; uniform BF16, payload only; quantization overhead excluded. Global KV: 61 × (2048 × 16/8) B/entry
Retained KV cache divided by context length, including bounded SWA caches and indexer keys. Exports use uniform BF16 at 131,072 tokens. The website can select uniform payload precision (no quantization overhead) or sourced component formats (including scales and documented padding). This is cache payload, not peak prefill memory or persistent prefix storage.
- Global KV bytes / token
249,856 bytes
Calculated: 249856 B / 1 tokens (Global KV); uniform BF16, payload only; quantization overhead excluded. Global KV: 61 × (2048 × 16/8) B/entry
Long-context global KV bytes per token, including indexer keys; excludes bounded SWA caches. Compression rates and cross-layer cache reuse are included. Exports use uniform BF16; the website's storage selector also applies here. This is the field to compare with global-KV figures in reports, using the matching storage recipe.
- KV bytes / token / B active
10,863 bytes
Calculated: kv.bytes_per_token (131072 tokens) / (params.active / 1e9); uniform BF16, payload only; quantization overhead excluded. Global KV: 61 × (2048 × 16/8) B/entry
kv.bytes_per_token divided by active parameters in billions (131,072 tokens in exports).
- KV at context / B active
1,423,875,027 bytes
Calculated: kv.bytes_at_context (131072 tokens) / (params.active / 1e9); uniform BF16, payload only; quantization overhead excluded. Global KV: 61 × (2048 × 16/8) B/entry
kv.bytes_at_context divided by active parameters in billions (131,072 tokens in exports).
- KV at context
32,749,125,632 bytes
Calculated: 249856 B × 131072 (Global KV); uniform BF16, payload only; quantization overhead excluded. Global KV: 61 × (2048 × 16/8) B/entry
Retained KV cache for one sequence at the selected context, including SWA windows and indexer keys. Exports use uniform BF16 at 131,072 tokens. Excludes recurrent state, compressor tail state, draft/MTP caches, temporary prefill tensors, allocator metadata and persistent prefix snapshots. Does not estimate peak prefill or total serving memory.
Evaluations
- AA Intelligence Index
31
Source: leaderboard · Artificial Analysis model page /models/k2-horizon-375b-a23b, Wayback snapshot 2026-10-19
K2 Horizon 375B A23B scores 31 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Score of K2-Horizon-375B-A23B (RL and SFT from the final Midtraining Stage 4 checkpoint), post-trained from this base. Variant: K2 Horizon 375B A23B. Index v4.3.2.
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3.2 of the post-trained model, from a dated Wayback snapshot of its Artificial Analysis page. The note names the variant (reasoning setting).