The writer is CEO of 01.AI, chair of Sinovation Ventures, former president of Google China and co-author of ‘AI 2041’

When Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek released its R1 large language model in January, America’s Nasdaq index fell 3 per cent in one day. The model rivalled market-leading US AI models in performance while using a fraction of their computing power, suggesting that America’s head start in generative AI might be shrinking. What’s more, it was made available open-source. Anyone could download it free and adapt it for their own commercial use.

Today, there is more reason than ever to believe Chinese AI companies can rival their US peers. DeepSeek’s latest two new models match the reasoning performance of OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Google’s Gemini-3 Pro. The runaway success of R1 and Alibaba’s Qwen have made open-source models the norm in China. Companies like Baidu, Zhipu, Moonshot AI and Meituan all allow users to download their cutting-edge models, interrogate how they work and adapt them. Contrasted with the secretive development of LLMs in the US, they offer a distinct Chinese pathway for progress in AI.