China Races the US on AI - Literally

April 28th, 2025

Finian Knepper

The monumental rise of AI over the past 5 years has continued into this very week, where the race has been branching into all other aspects of the tech competition.

On April 25th, Xi Jinping declared that China must achieve self-sufficiency in AI development. The call comes alongside other races related to the AI sector. Large Language Models (LLMs) require enormous amounts of computational power to operate, which in turn demands an incredible supply of computer chips and processing capabilities. This key component is one of the reasons China has lagged behind the U.S. in the AI race. However, China appears to be finding some footing against America and its chip giant NVIDIA. On April 25th, China successfully powered on its own chip cluster — made up of over 30,000 Chinese-developed, Chinese-produced Kunlun P800 chips. The cluster is capable of hosting China’s AI models, like DeepSeek AI.

China’s AI catch-up doesn’t end with just chatbots. Just three days ago, China unveiled its secret weapon in the spiraling trade war: robots. One of the most important parts of AI is its application — a chip cluster does nothing without a use for it. Hence, China has applied much of its AI technology toward automating its manufacturing industry. China’s “robot army,” as the Straits Times calls it, is using AI technology in its programming, allowing for newfound trust in AI workers and their unsupervised use — further automating Chinese industry. Yet the increase in AI manufacturing is only a sign of the times. The Economist points to a new sector in the tech race between the U.S. and China: humanoid robots capable of replacing most human tasks. On the 23rd, Chinese humanoid robots ran a half-marathon to draw attention to the growing sector. It worked — while American tech giants previously disregarded the field, it appears China’s humanoids have motivated them to start their own projects.

China’s AI rise is worrying to American politicians. In attempts to stay ahead, Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs on China. Most notably, on April 9th, Trump threatened to block all U.S. chip exports to China. Yet on April 18th, this plan was canceled. Five days ago, following negotiations with China, Trump lowered tariffs on Chinese goods. In response, China quietly lowered their own tariffs on U.S. goods.

Trump’s efforts to hinder China’s AI sector may backfire, however. As businesses incur costs from importing foreign rare-earth minerals and chips that support their own AIs, they may be encouraged to move elsewhere, harming the U.S.’s own AI competitiveness.

But despite the troubled waters, all seems to be continuing as normal in Silicon Valley. Alphabet (the parent company of Google) saw its AI applications — such as Gemini Search Overview — encouraging investment into the company, helping it pass the first quarter with record profits, blowing past pessimistic predictions for the company’s stock in the wake of Trump’s tariffs. OpenAI also released a new version of ChatGPT that can analyze and reason with images.

While the U.S. remains ahead of China in terms of AI development, China is pushing hard to catch up in all sectors — no matter how niche. From chips, to factory machines, to humanoid robots — all mixed up in a growing trade war — whatever happens in the AI market over the next year will be followed closely by the White House, the stock exchange, and, as always, by extempers across the nation.

Extemp Analysis by Finian Knepper

If you do end up with an explicitly tech focused question, I find it best to use status-quo change substructure, as tech is ever evolving and thus changes to the status quo will always be relevant. Although, I believe the most common place you're going to find questions about tech in the coming months is in regards to tariffs, the trade war and the economy. In these cases - descriptive substructures will be your best bet. As such, I’ve prepared this example question:

Will Trump's tariffs be able to halt China’s AI rise?

AGDs: Definitely go with a humorous, light-hearted AGD here. The rise of AI and Trump tariffs aren't directly harming or killing anyone, so it’s okay to poke fun at the back and forth of two politicians. Trying to take a serious, drama-filled tone would come off as a bit heavy-handed and unnecessarily intense, pushing away judges.

Background: Trump’s tariffs are very hard to keep track of - So don’t waste prep time trying to hunt down their complicated history. Instead, just go over the important non-changing status quo bits, such as that while the US has historically been ahead of China in terms of AI, they’re catching up, and Trump is trying to stop them with tariffs.

SOS: This will be a bit tricky - as again, no one is directly harmed by this; it’d be good to talk about the trend of competitors attempting to beat out the US across all sectors.

Thesis and main points: Diving to the inner workings of US and Chinese business, and what they plan to do is and always will be a big factor when it comes to tech and trade. Doing so is a great way to find points, and really impress your judges.