Mad, mad world of China’s AI rivalry with the US
President Xi has called science and technology the ‘main battlefield’ of international competition
It is a mad, mad AI world. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Beijing was luring Chinese-born high-tech talent “back home” from Silicon Valley. Fast forward a few weeks, and China now fears an artificial intelligence brain drain and has rolled out travel bans.
In the AI race with the United States, the Communist Party state will stop “startup founders, researchers, and executives” from leaving the country. These are the sort of restrictions imposed on “academics and nuclear scientists.”
“China is restricting overseas travel for top AI professionals in private firms such as the Alibaba Group and DeepSeek, suggesting an escalation in measures intended to safeguard its technology and catch up to the US in a pivotal sphere,” Bloomberg reported.
“Government agencies have begun imposing restrictions on individuals involved in advanced AI work… That means they need approval before embarking on overseas travel,” the global financial and business media group said earlier this week.
Risk factor:
- President Xi Jinping has made it clear that AI is strategically important to the nation.
- He has called science and technology the “main battlefield” of international competition.
[This] mirrors Silicon Valley’s scramble for AI engineers.
SEMAFOR
Delve deeper: Yet the travel bans come just weeks after more Chinese nationals decided to return to the motherland after working in the US. The Wall Street Journal described them as “China’s best and brightest tech talent,” known as “sea turtles” for moving back home.
Between the lines: Stock options and mega salaries are also being dangled as incentives. ByteDance is offering share options to retain staff, while a Chinese robotics startup advertised an $18 million salary for a chief scientist.
What they are saying: “[This] mirrors Silicon Valley’s scramble for AI engineers, with massive pay packages,” Semafor, the geopolitical media group, reported this week.
Big picture: Still, there are fears that AI mania risks creating a giant bubble, with global investment in artificial intelligence set to reach a staggering US$2.52 trillion this year.
China Factor comment: The unprecedented wave of capital represents a 44% year-over-year increase in funding, according to Gartner, the international research group. These are mind-blowing numbers that reflect the mind-blowing rivalry between China and the US.