The United States has lost almost all its advantage in the face of China. And in just over a year

American leadership in AI wobbles. The data of the AI Index 2025 Stanford reveals that China has trimmed the technical advantage of the United States to levels that seemed difficult to reach. Above all, because it has taken a little over a year to close most of the gap.

Why is it important. The United States maintains the volume –40 notable models against 15 Chinese at the end of the year in the Epoch list-but China has shown that quality is no longer American monopoly, and that almost-convergence rewrites the rules of geopolitics in the most promising and strategic technology of the 21st century.

The figures. In January 2024, the best American model exceeded Chinese in 9.26% in Benchmarks of chatbots. Just over a year later, that advantage has collapsed to 1.7%. Convergence is repeated in reasoning, mathematics and programming.

The case Deepseek It is a perfect example. While Google spent 192 million dollars on the specific training of Gemini 1.0 Ultrathe Chinese startup said they have achieved competitive results with just 6 million. That caused A media and stock market earthquake At the beginning of the year.

The contrast. They are two different approaches:

• The United States dominates for quantity and resources: it leads private investment (150,000 million dollars in 2024) and concentrates the most valued companies in the sector.
• China is responding efficiently: less models, much lower costs, equivalent results.

The narrative of “Chinese technological backwardness” falls apart. Yolanda Gil, co -director of AI Index, He explained Thus his surprise:

“I hoped that a more efficient version of the LLMS appeared at some point. We simply did not know who would build it or how.”

Yes, but. American hegemony persists on other fronts. American companies continue to create the most influential models and monopolize global investment. And Europe is relegated: only three notable models in 2024. All French. The shadow of Mistral.

The background. This race reflects a broader battle for the future of the digital economy. China demonstrates that efficiency can compensate for huge spending, challenging the “brute force” model that has characterized US development of AI.

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Outstanding image | Aerps.com in Unspash