It’s rapidly becoming apparent just how close China is to the US in one of the most consequential technologies of human history — Artificial Intelligence.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, the man at the helm of the company producing the chips powering the current AI revolution, has offered a sobering assessment of the AI landscape. His words painted a vivid picture of a neck-and-neck race with China with profound implications for the future. What’s particularly striking is his assertion that this isn’t merely a sprint, but an “infinite race,” a marathon with no finish line.
“How far behind do you think China is (in AI)?” Huang was asked by an interviewer. “China is not behind,” Huang immediately replied. “Are they ahead of you?” the interviewer pressed. “China is right behind us,” Huang shrugged.
He continued, “I mean they’re very, very close. But remember this is long-term. This is an infinite race. In the world of life, you know, there’s no two-minute quarter. There’s no such thing.”
“And so we’re going to compete for a long time,” Huang emphasized. “And just remember that (China) is a country with great technical capabilities. Fifty percent of the world’s AI researchers are Chinese. And so this is an industry that we will have to compete for.”
China had stormed into the AI conversation with the release of DeepSeek, which had matched several top US models in capability at a fraction of the price. But DeepSeek isn’t the only AI model from China — China has since released extremely capable AI models including Alibaba’s Qwen series and Tencent’s Hunyan large. China also has some extremely capable image and video generation models and products, which are best-in-class. China is also building self-driving cars, and organizing humanoid robot marathons. More crucially for NVIDIA, China’s Huawei has been looking to build chips of its own, and while NVIDIA maintains a lead for now, there’s no telling how long it’ll last for.
Jensen Huang isn’t the only tech leader who’s talked about how close the US is with China in the AI race. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that China will end up winning the AI race if the US doesn’t get its act together, and this could come with enormous negative consequences. Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously talked about China’s capability in building hardware, which is ahead of the US. And if China does really end up equaling the US in AI, and maintains its considerable lead in manufacturing, it does seem poised to take over the mantle of being the preeminent world power from the US in the decades to come.