OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman has cautioned that the United States may be underestimating both the scale and complexity of China’s progress in artificial intelligence (AI), while expressing skepticism about Washington’s reliance on export controls to slow Beijing’s advance.
In an interview with reporters in San Francisco, Altman said the U.S.-China AI race is deeply interwoven and far more complex than a simple competition to see which nation is ahead, CNBC reported Monday.
“I’m worried about China,” Altman was quoted as saying. “There’s inference capacity, where China probably can build faster. There’s research, there’s product; a lot of layers to the whole thing. I don’t think it’ll be as simple as: Is the US or China ahead?”
Despite tighter U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports, Altman cast doubt on the policy’s effectiveness, suggesting it is unlikely to keep pace with technical realities. Asked whether limiting the flow of advanced GPUs to China would provide reassurance, he replied, “My instinct is that doesn’t work.”
Chinese analysts said Altman’s comments reflect a growing sense of unease among U.S. tech leaders. Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times that Altman offered a “sober and more realistic” assessment of the AI race, in contrast to U.S. officials and business figures who often reduce the issue to chip supply.
“Altman is taking a holistic view of the AI competition,” Xiang said, pointing to the breadth of factors at play, from data collection and processing to algorithms, infrastructure, and applications across devices such as robots, drones, connected vehicles, and smart manufacturing.
His remarks come amid a string of U.S. statements underscoring the narrow technological gap. In June, White House AI czar David Sacks said China was only “months” behind the U.S., while in May, Altman himself told the Senate Commerce Committee that America was “barely ahead” in the AI race.
China, meanwhile, has highlighted its own achievements. At a press conference on August 14, Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, said the country accounted for 60 percent of global AI patents and had achieved breakthroughs in humanoid robotics and intelligent hardware. He noted that China’s computing power now ranks second worldwide, supporting both economic and social development.
Beijing has also consistently opposed Washington’s tightening of export controls, which it argues amount to politicization and weaponization of technology. “Such practices disrupt the stability of global industrial and supply chains and are in no one’s interests,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on August 11.
