Washington is courting Asian governments and buyers with a new AI export program and calls for regional partnerships, but on-the-ground momentum is shifting toward China’s cheaper, open-weight models. At APEC’s Digital Weeks in Chengdu, U.S. firms kept a low profile as Chinese players promoted competitive large language models and Beijing advanced AI training and standards outreach. Commerce officials continue to pitch a modular U.S. tech stack from chips to models, though early applications for the export program appear modest. Analysts say emerging Asian markets are prioritizing cost, localization and technological sovereignty, encouraging hybrid deployments that mix U.S. hardware with Chinese open-source systems. Despite intensifying rivalry, economic and technical interdependence—especially in chips and multilingual use cases—suggests full decoupling remains unlikely.
Related article:
