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China's AI Lag Due to Computing Power Limits, Not Talent: DeepSeek Founder
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Technology

China's AI Lag Due to Computing Power Limits, Not Talent: DeepSeek Founder

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • China's primary disadvantage against the U.S. in artificial intelligence is limited access to computing resources, not talent or technology, according to DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng.
  • Washington's export controls on advanced AI chips, like Nvidia's H100/H200, create this gap, impacting China's ability to develop cutting-edge AI models.
  • Despite restrictions, Chinese AI firms are striving to narrow the gap, with DeepSeek aiming to reduce its lag behind U.S. leaders to 3-6 months.

The most significant hurdle for China in the artificial intelligence race against the United States is not a lack of skilled personnel or technological prowess, but rather restricted access to essential computing power. Liang Wenfeng, founder and CEO of Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, identified this as the "biggest gap" during a recent investor meeting, as reported by Chinese financial media Yicai.

The biggest gap between us and the United States is in resources.

— Liang WenfengDeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng explaining the primary disadvantage China faces in AI development.

Liang explained that disparities in talent, model capabilities, and applications all stem from the fundamental difference in computational power. This limitation is largely due to U.S. export controls that restrict China's access to the most advanced AI chips, such as those produced by Nvidia. DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou, recently secured over 50 billion yuan (approximately $7.4 billion) in its first external funding round, attracting investment from major players like Tencent and CATL.

The company gained international attention in early 2025 with its low-cost model, DeepSeek-R1, which investor Marc Andreessen famously called a "Sputnik moment" for AI. According to meeting minutes cited by Yicai, DeepSeek estimates it trails leading U.S. AI companies by 12 to 18 months. However, the firm claims to have achieved comparable results using only about one-twentieth of the computational power employed by its American counterparts.

We are about 12 to 18 months behind the leading U.S. AI companies.

— Liang WenfengDeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng estimating the company's lag behind U.S. AI leaders.

Despite these challenges, Liang expressed ambition, stating DeepSeek aims to close this gap to just three to six months. The company reportedly possesses computing resources equivalent to about 20,000 Nvidia H100 or H200 GPUs. These declarations come as China's AI industry works to demonstrate progress despite Washington's semiconductor restrictions, a key bottleneck in the global tech race. The situation is further complicated by U.S. officials, like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, warning of potential sanctions if Chinese firms are found to have illicitly used U.S. models, while companies like Anthropic accuse rivals of replicating their systems.

We aim to reduce that distance to between three and six months.

— Liang WenfengDeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng expressing ambition to close the AI development gap with the U.S.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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