China Edges Closer to Becoming the World's Number One, America Lags Behind

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - China is drawing ever closer to victory in the AI industry. Meanwhile, its rival, the United States (US), is still struggling to develop the technology.

A report from Stanford University’s HAI Index, cited from Fortune, highlights this. One reason is China’s lead in AI publications and research.

Beijing is said to have implemented a higher level of industrial AI robot integration. The rate is nearly nine times that issued by the US.

China also leads in patents. China holds more than 74% of global AI patent grants in 2024, cited from Futurism, Monday (20/4/2026).

This figure is far higher than other regions. The US has 12% and 3% from the European Union. Several international economists explain that the fewer patents in the US are due to high concentration in a small number of large private companies.

Since last year, the US and China have alternated as number one for AI models. For example, DeepSeek-R1 matched the US’s top model in February 2025.

“Up to March 2026, the US’s top model leads by 2.7%, with fluctuations over the past year but still in single digits,” the report states.

Nevertheless, the US leads in one category related to investment. Uncle Sam’s country spent US$258.9 billion (Rp 4,400 trillion) on AI alone last year.

That figure is 20 times more expensive than what China spent, valued at US$12.4 billion (Rp 212.4 trillion).