The new “AI Plus” initiative aims to integrate Chinese models into key industries and export Chinese AI and hardware to the Global South—no export license, no questions asked.
The results are already clear. China has racked up more than 1,500 models, many of which are open-source. Many outperform or match the math and coding benchmarks of Western models. Huawei’s GPUs are quickly filling the gap left by the Biden administration’s adoption of stricter export controls. The research firm Bernstein projects that Nvidia’s global AI market share will drop a whopping 12% this year alone, if restrictions largely remain in place. China’s foundry capacity has vastly surpassed Washington’s expectation, and China is shipping chips abroad several years ahead of schedule. While U.S. politicians compete to see who can be more hawkish on China, Beijing is increasing international dependency on its models and hardware.
What’s the American response to a clearly failing strategy? In many parts of Washington, it’s still restrictions. But happily that isn’t true in the White House.