China-US AI synergy driven by realities of marketplace

Despite geopolitical tensions and "decoupling" rhetoric, market forces, specialized skill sets and hardware supply chains are bringing technology companies from China and the United States closer together.

Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, said that China and the US are the world's main players in the field of artificial intelligence.

"China is innovating incredibly rapidly. Some of the world's fastest and greatest innovations are coming out of China. That lays the foundation for China-US cooperation on AI," Stein said.

Large language models are a typical example. A growing number of US AI companies are building products on Chinese models. In August, US legal AI firm Harvey released Tenet, its first post-trained open-weight model, based on Chinese AI company Moonshot's Kimi K3.

Such cooperation comes as China ranks first worldwide in downloads of open-source large language models, underscoring its edge in generative AI innovation, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In the AI automotive chip sector, US companies remain deeply embedded in China's smart vehicle supply chain. In April, Chery Automobile announced a global strategic partnership with US chipmaker Nvidia to jointly develop physical AI in assisted driving, cockpit AI and robotics.

Meanwhile, US chipmaker Qualcomm also announced in June plans to launch customized AI data center chips in China that comply with US export regulations, deepening cooperation with Chinese automakers and smartphone makers.

Qian Kun, senior vice-president of Qualcomm, said AI is moving from single applications to more terminals such as phones, PCs, glasses, cars and robots.

"China has a huge digital economy, a complete industrial system and a vibrant developer ecosystem," Qian said. "From smart devices to smart cars, Chinese companies continue to create new AI application scenarios and drive rapid commercialization of new technologies. More and more innovations originating in China are not only serving the Chinese market but also going global.

"Close cooperation with Chinese partners has not only promoted local innovation but also brought important experience and inspiration to Qualcomm's global business," he said.

The humanoid robot sector offers an even clearer example of China-US technological "hybridization" and supply chain synergy. In June, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced cooperation with Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree to launch the Isaac GR00T humanoid robot reference platform.