AI rivalry takes centre stage as Trump and Xi prepare to meet
Artificial intelligence competition is set to be a major topic when Trump and Xi meet on Thursday, with both nations viewing AI dominance as key to global power. The US and China are pursuing different strategies in development and safety regulation.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are due to meet on Thursday, with artificial intelligence ambitions expected to be among the most significant items on the agenda. Analysts say both governments view the AI race as a path to broader economic and geopolitical power, even though neither side has fully spelled out what "winning" would mean.
Who leads?
The US currently leads in frontier AI models, with companies such as Anthropic, Google and OpenAI topping most benchmark rankings. However, the gap has narrowed considerably: researchers at Stanford University found that China's DeepSeek briefly matched the top US model in February 2025, and by March 2026 the leading US model's advantage had shrunk to just 2.7%.
The US edge is partly fuelled by massive investment in leading AI firms and by government restrictions that block Chinese companies from buying advanced microchips needed to train cutting-edge models.
China's strategy
Rather than chasing frontier models, Chinese firms have focused on releasing open weight models that can be downloaded and modified, unlike the largely proprietary, subscription-based approach favoured by US companies. Analysts say this lets China spread capable AI widely across its economy even without leading at the very top. China also benefits from cheaper electricity, an important factor for AI training, and has become the world's largest manufacturer of robots, including humanoid robots.
Diverging views on safety
Washington and Beijing differ sharply on how to handle AI risk. Trump has argued existing rules are sufficient and opposes calls to slow down AI development. Xi, by contrast, has urged officials to keep AI risks in check and ensure the technology remains under human control, and China has already introduced guidelines on data use and algorithms.
Ahead of the summit, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng discussed setting up a mechanism to notify each other of serious AI-related incidents.
