Korean Media: The Tide Has Turned—Top AI Talent Now More Likely to Choose China Over the U.S.

On November 11, a survey conducted by South Korea’s *Korea Economic Daily* revealed that China has surpassed the United States as the preferred destination for global top-tier artificial intelligence talent.

The findings were included in a report titled *Who Leads in the Global Competition for Artificial Intelligence Talent*, released by Carnegie China, a think tank affiliated with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The study analyzed a sample of researchers who published papers by 2025. Results showed that 4,174 individuals (40.6%) were working in China, compared to 3,514 (34.2%) in the United States.

In the 2022 survey, the ratio between the U.S. and China stood at 46 to 27. By 2025, this had shifted to 34 to 41, indicating that China now leads the comparison.

Based on last year’s data, after China and the United States, the next most common destinations for AI talent were Europe (706 individuals, 6.9%), South Korea (487, 4.7%), the United Kingdom (312, 3.0%), and Singapore (271, 2.6%).

Rankings of institutions attracting AI talent have also changed.

Based on the affiliations of paper authors, Google ranked first in 2022, followed by Tsinghua University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft, Meta, Peking University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, ranking second through tenth. Among these, three were companies and seven were universities; excluding two Chinese institutions, the remaining eight were based in the United States.

By 2025, Peking University and Tsinghua University had moved into first and second place, respectively, while the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) rose to third.

Next came Shanghai Jiao Tong University in fourth, MIT in fifth, Stanford University in sixth, Google in seventh, the University of Science and Technology of China in eighth, Zhejiang University in ninth, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in tenth.

Among the top 10 institutions, five were Chinese universities, while the combined total from U.S. universities and corporations dropped to four.

When considering the region where bachelor’s degrees were obtained, China’s share of talent produced over the past three years has increased further.

In the 2022 survey, China accounted for 46.3% of those surveyed, the U.S. for 19.8%, followed by Europe (7.2%), India (6.2%), and South Korea (4.8%).

By 2025, China’s share exceeded half at 57.4%, while the U.S. fell to 13.3%. Shares for Europe and India declined to 6.4% and 4%, respectively, while South Korea’s share rose slightly to 5.7%.

The number of researchers trained in China who remain in China has also grown.

In the 2022 survey, among 1,460 researchers who graduated from Chinese universities, 56.6% chose to work in China, and 31.8% opted for the United States.

By 2025, among a larger sample of 5,903 graduates from Chinese universities, the proportion working in China increased to 68.7%, while those working in the United States declined to 21.2%.

The report explains: “More Chinese researchers are choosing to stay in China now than before, due to greater ease of finding jobs in China’s rapidly expanding AI sector. Meanwhile, tightened visa restrictions have made it more difficult for Chinese graduate students—especially those in STEM fields—to come to the United States.”

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1881548256829450/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.