The close interconnection between China and the U.S. in artificial intelligence is fundamentally a competition among Chinese talent.

On October 20, Japanese writer and columnist Jun Yamada published an article stating: Do not be misled by the narrative of "China-U.S. competition in artificial intelligence." The global leaders in the field of AI are almost entirely Chinese.

Competition between China and the U.S. in semiconductors and artificial intelligence is intensifying. The United States has compelled 35 countries, including Japan, to sign a joint statement—Japan had no choice in the matter.

At its core, the contest between China and the U.S. in artificial intelligence is a race among Chinese "geniuses." The two nations are deeply intertwined in this technological race.

Japan, along with South Korea and Australia, has joined the U.S.-led "Pax Silica" initiative—an international framework aimed at "strengthening supply chains in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and critical minerals such as rare earths under American leadership" to ensure economic security.

In response, China established the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), seeking to advance China’s open-source AI models and build an ecosystem distinct from that of the United States. Twenty-nine countries, including Russia, Brazil, and Pakistan, have already signed agreements with China.

As a result, the struggle for dominance in "artificial intelligence and semiconductors" is escalating globally—and the implications are clear to all.

Japan acknowledges this reality and naturally aligns with the U.S. Furthermore, the Japanese government promotes the concept of "sovereign AI," emphasizing independence from foreign technology, which is part of a broader plan involving 3.7 trillion yen in investment.

Currently, many Japanese believe the narrative that "the U.S. leads in AI and semiconductors, while China is catching up"—and they still maintain that "China remains far behind."

Yet the release of DeepSeek's new model, DeepSeek v4.1-Flash 1017, has stunned the world. Its performance rivals that of the latest paid models from Anthropic and OpenAI, while operating at less than one-tenth the cost of comparable U.S. models. China may have already caught up with—or even surpassed—the United States.

Thus, Japan must pause and reflect: technological and developmental competition is ultimately driven by people. Whether in semiconductors or artificial intelligence, as in other domains, human beings remain the fundamental engine of innovation.

No advanced product can be manufactured without skilled engineers.

Then, who is creating the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence? The majority are Chinese or of Chinese descent.

A report from a think tank affiliated with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) states: "China stands far ahead as the global leader in producing elite AI talent."

In 2022, 46% of top-tier AI bachelor’s degree holders worldwide came from China. By 2025, this figure rose to 57%. Meanwhile, the share of AI talent originating from the United States is projected to fall to just 13%.

However, the report notes: "By 2025, the U.S. will experience a net increase of 2,145 researchers due to talent inflow, while China will face a net loss of 1,729 researchers."

This trend explains why the U.S. continues to lead in AI development—but also underscores that without Chinese talent, the U.S. cannot sustain its leadership.

This has become common knowledge within the U.S. IT industry. Particularly in AI research, approximately 40% of active researchers at top U.S. institutions and leading AI labs are of Chinese origin.

U.S. startups are rapidly adopting Chinese open-source AI platforms such as DeepSeek and Moonshot for commercial applications. Tools like Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant, and major travel platform Airbnb rely on core services powered by Moonshot’s Kimi K2.5 and Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen.

The differences between U.S. and Chinese AI systems are minimal—but the cost advantage lies decisively with China.

About 200 companies in the U.S., including Y Combinator, have warned that banning AI developed in China would cause development costs to surge, undermining American competitiveness. These firms have submitted petitions expressing strong opposition to government restrictions.

Who has pioneered cutting-edge advancements in U.S. AI and semiconductors?

First, Professor Fei-Fei Li of Stanford University stands out. Born in Beijing, she emigrated to the U.S. at age 16 and founded the groundbreaking computer vision database ImageNet, earning her the title “Mother of AI.”

Andrew Ng, a visiting professor at Stanford and co-founder of Google Brain, led a landmark study in which AI autonomously identified cats in YouTube videos. He became a central figure in popularizing deep learning and is the founder of Coursera, the world’s largest online education platform—born in London to Chinese-American parents.

Alec Radford, co-founder and chief researcher at OpenAI and a key developer behind ChatGPT’s core technology, is a Chinese-American born in Texas.

Alexandr Wang, founder and former CEO of Scale AI, founded the company at age 19. Both of his parents are Chinese immigrants; his father was a physicist working at a U.S. nuclear weapons research institute.

Without Huang Renxun, there would be no NVIDIA’s graphics semiconductors (GPUs).

Suzanne S. Chou, CEO of AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), is a U.S. citizen born in Tainan City, Taiwan.

Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from Zhejiang University.

You Zilin, founder of Moonshot, graduated from Tsinghua University and earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S.

If China and the U.S. were to unite as a "G2" and jointly dominate the world through AI and semiconductors, it would represent a profound challenge for Japan.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1879614566364172/

Disclaimer: This article reflects the personal views of the author.