Tej Parikh’s Financial Times piece reframes the AI contest: not a sprint for superior models, but a marathon where endurance wins. China’s advantages in energy abundance, open-source leadership, and manufacturing scale tilt the scales decisively.
America’s top models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic shine bright, fueled by elite chips. Yet Chinese firms – DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI – advance relentlessly, their language models closing ranks on performance metrics.
The open-source revolution, spearheaded by China, democratizes AI progress. Developers globally refine these free models, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.
Capital Economics’ experts affirm: prioritizing efficiency, data quality, and system integration equips Chinese AI to challenge U.S. frontrunners. Energy, the lifeblood of massive training runs, flows freely in China.
Geopolitical ripples loom large. U.S. export controls may slow foes, but China’s self-reliant ecosystem endures. This marathon mindset promises sustained innovation, potentially crowning Beijing the AI superpower of tomorrow.