US and China Battle for AI Dominance as Both Nations Push for Supremacy
The race for artificial intelligence (AI) dominance between the United States and China is intensifying, with both nations ramping up efforts to outpace each other in this crucial area of technological competition.
According to the AI Index Report from Stanford University, China leads the world in the volume of AI-related publications, but the US remains ahead in terms of quality. The US boasts 50 highly cited AI papers, compared to China’s 34, followed by Germany and Hong Kong with seven each and Canada with six.
China is also a global leader in AI patent applications, making up 60% of the global total in recent years, as reported by PatentPC.
China’s goal is to become the global AI leader by 2030, a target set with the launch of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan in July 2017. By that year, Beijing aims to have a domestic AI industry worth approximately $150 billion. To achieve this, China has created a national AI industry fund valued at $8.2 billion, with investments directed towards early-stage projects and research and development grants.
Meanwhile, the US has been pursuing its own AI projects with significant backing from both the private sector and the government. Notably, the Stargate Project, a collaboration between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, was announced after President Donald Trump took office. This initiative is set to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years to build a new AI infrastructure in the US.
In terms of AI tool usage, the US remains the dominant force. Data from AITools reveals that OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to be the world’s most popular AI tool, attracting 4.7 billion visitors since its public launch, despite a decline in traffic around its launch period. On the other hand, China’s DeepSeek, a completely open-source AI language model, ranks fourth in popularity. It has gained significant traction, with a 2,000% increase in monthly users, reaching 268 million in January.
Despite DeepSeek’s success, the US continues to lead the AI tools rankings, with seven out of the top ten most visited tools being based in the US. DeepSeek is the only Chinese-developed tool to make the list.
