AI Became a "National Strategic Resource"
Until 2022, AI was a private-competition area, but post-ChatGPT, governments position "AI as a national strategic resource on par with nuclear weapons and semiconductors." Export controls, subsidies, and data-center attraction are becoming central topics of diplomatic negotiation.
US Strategy
Export Controls
- 2022: ban on H100/A100 export to China
- 2023: regulation-compliant H800/A800 also banned
- 2024: low-performance versions like H20 also targeted, HBM export also regulated
- 2025: debate on export controls for AI-model weights/services
Entity List
SMIC, Huawei, DeepSeek etc. added to the US Entity List, restricting access to US products/technology. OpenAI also restricts API access from mainland China.
Subsidies/Industrial Policy
- CHIPS Act (2022): $52B
- Stargate concept (OpenAI + Oracle + SoftBank): hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars scale
China's Response
Domestic Frontier Models
- DeepSeek V3 / R1: surprised the world with low-cost training
- Qwen 3 / 4 (Alibaba): world-top-class as open-weight
- GLM (Zhipu): enterprise-oriented
- Kimi (Moonshot): long-context specialized
- Doubao (ByteDance): consumer-oriented
Multimodal
- Kling (Kuaishou): on par with Sora in video generation
- Vidu (Shengshu)
- Hailuo (MiniMax)
Domestic Semiconductors
Huawei Ascend, Cambricon, Biren as domestic AI chips. SMIC mass-produces 7nm, developing 5nm.
Foreign-Capital Regulation/M&A Review
In April 2026, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) blocked Meta's $2B acquisition of agent-type AI startup Manus. Through a "foreign-investment security review" it ordered the deal cancelled. A new regulatory risk has emerged for foreign capital entering/acquiring Chinese AI firms.
Europe's Strategy
EU AI Act (Leading by Regulation)
The world's first comprehensive AI regulation. A "lead by values" strategy. Unable to win US-China competition on tech power, it secures influence by rule-formation.
