WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Edge Project, a coalition of two dozen domestic organizations, today released its latest U.S.-China Artificial Intelligence (AI) Leadership Scorecard, a monthly assessment of how the two nations are performing in the four areas that determine who will win the AI race: energy, adoption, compute, and talent.
Released days after the summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, this most recent edition finds that China is ahead. China won the energy and adoption categories. The U.S. won on talent. The two nations tied on compute.
“This month brought new challenges to American AI leadership,” said Doug Kelly, CEO of the American Edge Project. “As China works to close the technology gap, data-center moratoriums and restrictions continue to climb in the U.S. To protect our technological edge, America must continue to innovate and build the infrastructure necessary to compete.”
The full scorecard can be viewed here. And key findings from the September edition can be viewed below:
- ENERGY: China wins. China’s power advantage widened again. The United States is adding substantial storage, but China continues adding actual generation at a scale and pace America has not matched.
- ADOPTION: China wins. America continues to show strong workplace AI adoption, with nearly four in 10 workers using generative AI on the job. But China wins this month on scale and global reach: 546 million monthly GenAI users, while Qwen has surpassed three billion downloads and spawned 300,000 Qwen-based models worldwide.
- COMPUTE: Tie. America leads in frontier chips and compute investment, but 299 active restrictions across 44 states and a 65-point gap between support for AI leadership and local data centers threaten to erode that advantage. Meanwhile, China continues rapidly expanding its data centers and domestic AI chips.
- TALENT: United States. China is expanding AI education, but America made more tangible progress in August, with major new investments in the skilled-trades and semiconductor workers needed to build and operate AI infrastructure.
BACKGROUND:
The American Edge Project is a coalition of domestic organizations representing a cross-section of U.S. innovators who are dedicated to telling the story about technology’s positive influence on America’s economy and the vital role innovation plays in our society. Former New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, former U.S. Representative Chris Carney, and former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith are directors of the American Edge Project. AEP’s National Security Advisory Board is comprised of Former White House Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend and former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Michael J. Morell. Former U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) serve as Co-Chairs of the Project’s Economic Advisory Board. Former U.S. Representative Greg Walden (R-OR) and Former U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) serve as Co-Chairs of the Project’s Open & Accessible Internet Advisory Board.
Visit AmericanEdgeProject.org for more information.