Who Will Dominate AI: The U.S., China, Both or Neither?
A ‘Sputnick moment’ for AI. A new cold war – the race to superintelligence – is on.
Editor's Note: Published on Dec. 2, 2025; republished on Dec. 27, 2025.
The year 2025 began with an artificial intelligence jolt: DeepSeek, a large language model developed in Hangzhou, China’s “Silicon Valley,” shook global financial markets. The AI phenom became the most-downloaded free app on Apple’s app store in the U.S., beating even ChatGPT.
12 Days of Broadband 2025 (click to open)
- On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: One Carr driving the Federal Communications Commission.
- On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Two superpowers racing toward AI superintelligence dominance.
- On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Three branches of government (and some formerly independent agencies).
- On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Four programs with Universal Service Funds.
- On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 56 states and territories without digital equity grants.
- On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true level sent to me: Less than 6 months for a broadband permit.
- On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Data center-powered electricity bills up 70 percent.
- On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 800 megahertz of spectrum to sell at auction.
- On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: $9 billion + 12 billion (or $21 billion) in BEAD remaining funds.
- On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Not even $10/month for an affordable connectivity program.
- On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Through BEAD and broadband, 110 million locations served.
- On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: More than 1200 megahertz of spectrum for unlicensed wireless.
Here, in spite of U.S. export controls keeping the most advanced chips by Nvidia out of the country, a Chinese AI startup appeared to have built a near-frontier AI model cheaply – and through open-source. It was a “Sputnick moment” if there ever was one for the U.S.
A new “cold war” – the race to superintelligence – was on.
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