US and China put AI ambitions in focus

The US and China are competing for leadership in artificial intelligence as President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping prepare to meet on Thursday. Both countries see AI as a source of technological and geopolitical power, although their governments describe the risks and priorities differently.

American companies lead in so-called frontier models, with firms including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI producing the highest-performing systems on most benchmarks. A DeepSeek model from China briefly matched the top US model in February 2025. As of March 2026, Anthropic's leading model was ahead by just 2.7%, according to Stanford University researchers.

China has focused heavily on open weight models that can be downloaded and adapted. Models such as Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 have gained popularity because they perform close to frontier systems while remaining freely downloadable. Analysts say China may gain economic and geopolitical influence by making capable AI cheap, open and widely available.

China also has advantages in energy costs and robotics. The International Federation of Robotics estimates that more than two million robots work in Chinese factories, while Chatham House says China accounted for more than nine-tenths of global humanoid-robot shipments in the first half of the year.

The two countries also differ on AI safety. US officials have emphasised existing rules and competition, while Chinese researchers have focused more on misuse and cyber war. It remains unclear what winning the AI race would mean, or whether it has a finish line.