The US model of AI development is market-led, with private labs funded by venture capital and big tech competing to build the most capable general-purpose models. The underlying premise is that the value of AI comes from frontier software; whoever builds the smartest model captures the market, and societal applications will follow. Government involvement is mostly indirect (eg. research funding, chip export controls) and regulations are comparatively light and fragmented.<br><br>The Chinese model is state-coordinated, with government actively involved in setting priorities, funding research, and guiding development through subsidies, procurement, and mandatory model registration. They prioritize diffusion and widespread integration of AI rather than frontier dominance, with AI's value coming from embedding "good enough" models across manufacturing, logistics, energy, and public services at scale for productivity, leveraging China's large industrial base