China's AI models are catching up to the US, with usage surging ahead

At a recent financial forum in Hong Kong, a Huawei executive said the gap between Chinese and US AI models is now very small. According to the latest Stanford report, China's AI models are only 2.7% behind the US overall, and are getting very close to international standards.

Since February 2025, Chinese models have been used much more than US models. The executive said this is because open-source models in China have improved a lot, almost matching US closed-source models. Also, China's strong infrastructure and lower costs for computing and electricity make domestic AI models more affordable.

China is pushing hard in AI. By April 30, 2025, 868 generative AI services had been registered. The National Data Administration says total data used for AI training and reasoning in 2025 reached 199.48EB, up 42.86% from last year, with reasoning data exceeding training data for the first time.