What happened
China's government and private sector are expanding AI investment to an estimated $98 billion by 2025, a 48% increase from the prior year. This funding supports AI infrastructure, research, and development, aligning with the New Generation AI Development Plan to achieve global AI leadership by 2030. Concurrently, Chinese entities have increased AI-related patent filings and advanced applications in facial recognition, autonomous vehicles, and AI-driven healthcare, exemplified by models like DeepSeek, narrowing the performance gap with US counterparts.
Why it matters
The accelerated development and deployment of diverse AI models and applications from China, driven by substantial state investment, introduces an operational constraint for global technology procurement and integration. This shift increases exposure for IT security and compliance teams to a broader array of AI solutions, potentially operating under different regulatory frameworks or with varying transparency levels. Consequently, it raises due diligence requirements for evaluating the provenance, data handling, and ethical implications of AI technologies sourced internationally, creating a potential policy mismatch.
