China’s AI Dragons Risk Choking Each Other
DeepSeek has spurred a booming artificial intelligence sector. Intense competition risks a race to the bottom.
China AI is a crowded market.
Photographer: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
It’s a story that has played out many times in the history of China’s tech sector. Notoriously fierce competition means that whenever a new craze comes along, scores of rivals emerge ready to pounce.
Firms are then locked in a race to the bottom when it comes to pricing. The food delivery wars forced out smaller players over the years and led bubble tea — another consumer fad fallen prey — to be sold this month for as little as 1.68 yuan (less than 25 cents). A similar cutthroat market has left behind a trail of zombie cars in the electric-vehicle sector. Now the same forces are in full swing in the booming artificial intelligence industry.