Is China Winning the AI Race Quietly?
Big US companies like Pinterest and Airbnb are picking Chinese AI tools because they’re better, cheaper, and easy to tweak.
Quietly? I think China loudly winning the AI race.
Loud enough for the world to take notice! pic.twitter.com/1HgG1ItIw2— Michelle (@D162Michele) January 24, 2026
Pinterest uses China’s DeepSeek R-1 (launched January 2025) and Alibaba’s Qwen to make smart shopping suggestions. Boss Bill Ready says this “DeepSeek moment” started a boom in free-to-use AI. Tech head Matt Madrigal adds these tools are 30% more accurate and cost up to 90% less than US ones like ChatGPT from OpenAI.
It’s not only Pinterest. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says he likes Qwen for helping customers because it is good, fast, and low-cost.
On Hugging Face—a website where people download AI models—Chinese AI models are the most downloaded. In September 2025, Qwen even beat Meta’s Llama in total downloads. Often, four of the top five popular models are from China. New startups choose them to save money, says expert Jeff Boudier.
A recent Stanford study says Chinese AI has caught up or beaten others worldwide—in smarts and users. Why? Government help and sharing code freely. US companies chase “super-smart AI” that beats humans, but ex-Meta leader Nick Clegg says that’s fuzzy thinking. Funny twist: China’s strict system is making AI open to everyone.
U.S. companies like OpenAI spend billions of dollars on powerful computers and closed (secret) AI models to make money—possibly even through ads in the future.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, is planning very large investments in new AI versions. However, only a few free models were released last summer.Meta’s latest Llama flopped, so they’re mixing in others for the next one.
Back in 2025, everyone thought US would win. Now, China’s free AI tools rule for real-world use by big businesses.
