The AI Race: U.S. vs. China

Peter Zeihan 4 min

China cannot compete in AI because export restrictions prevent them from building the necessary high-end hardware. The structural issues regarding data and ethics are irrelevant because the race comes down to hardware access.

Chapters

  1. 0:00

    Ethical Misconceptions

    Silicon Valley companies mine user data just as aggressively as China does, negating any ethical advantage China might have.

  2. 1:03

    Hardware Limitations

    Export restrictions prevent China from accessing the extreme ultraviolet machines needed to produce high-end semiconductors below seven nanometers. AI performance depends on the number of computations per chip and power consumption, which current Chinese chips cannot match.

Key points

  • 0:22

    Silicon Valley companies actively mine personal data without regard for privacy.

  • 1:03

    China cannot import extreme ultraviolet machines required for high-end semiconductors.

  • 1:03

    Export limits cap Chinese semiconductor production at approximately four to five nanometers.

  • 1:03

    High-end AI requires chips in the two to four-nanometer range.

  • 1:03

    Large language models rely almost exclusively on specific GPU chips.

  • 1:03

    Better chips enable more computation per unit of power.

On the map

Map of the places in “The AI Race: U.S. vs. China”

Who and where

Places · 7

  • People's Republic of China 6
  • United States 3
  • Silicon Valley 2
  • Ireland 1
  • Kingdom of the Netherlands 1
  • Taiwan 1
  • Japan 1

Organisations · 3

  • ASML Holding 1
  • Facebook 1
  • Meta Platforms 1

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