Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are expected to discuss artificial intelligence as the US and China compete for technological and geopolitical influence. Both countries view AI as a potential source of economic and strategic power, although China publicly stresses international cooperation while Trump prioritises securing American dominance.

The US currently leads in frontier AI models, with American firms holding a narrow performance advantage and benefiting from heavy investment and access to advanced chips. China is developing capable open-weight models that are cheap, downloadable and easily adapted, while focusing on widespread economic deployment; its strengths in manufacturing and energy could help it gain influence even without leading at the technological frontier.