The State of AI: is China about to win the race?
The world is focused on America’s lead but Beijing has the means, motive and opportunity to pull ahead
The Financial Times and MIT Technology Review have launched a new collaborative series titled The State of AI, exploring the profound global impact of artificial intelligence. This six-part weekly newsletter series, starting November 3, 2025, focuses on the pivotal questions shaping the AI era, including the technological supremacy race between the US and China.
John Thornhill from FT and Caiwei Chen from MIT Technology Review debate whether China is on track to overtake the US as the leading AI superpower. While the US still leads in semiconductor expertise, top AI research talent, and infrastructure, China has surged ahead in AI publications, patents, and monthly downloads of AI models. China’s open-source AI models such as DeepSeek-V3 and Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5-Max demonstrate remarkable efficiency and growing global adoption.
China’s strength lies in the widespread societal deployment of AI technologies, fast-moving industrial policy, and integration of AI literacy in education at all levels. Local governments and enterprises are rapidly rolling out AI applications in areas like fintech, logistics, and administration. Despite significant challenges such as export restrictions on advanced GPU chips, Chinese companies optimize with pooled compute resources and open-weight model releases.
The discussion also touches on China’s "engineering state" model that combines technological dynamism with social control, raising questions about how political factors might influence AI ambitions. Conversely, China’s younger generation of AI founders is globally minded and increasingly transnational, suggesting potential for broad influence beyond domestic borders.
Both commentators underline that the AI race is not only about speed but also about how technology is deployed and adopted across societies—with US strengths in proprietary models contrasted against China’s open-source strategies. The series continues to explore these themes with in-depth analysis on AI’s impact on geopolitics, economics, privacy, and the future of work.
