China is leading in holistic AI development. Can the US catch up?

African and investigative outlets emphasize the asymmetries in AI development, focusing on how Chinese and Western actors leverage each other’s models and how infrastructure demands strain emerging markets. They attribute China’s rapid progress partly to techniques like model distillation from US systems and highlight that power-hungry AI data centers in places like South Africa deepen dependence on foreign capital and technology. The projected outcome is a landscape where the Global South hosts critical AI infrastructure yet remains structurally dependent on US and Chinese model providers and hardware vendors.

• •African reporting cites an OpenAI memo alleging that China’s DeepSeek improved its models by distilling capabilities from US-developed AI systems.
• •They argue that such distillation practices underscore how Chinese developers can accelerate progress by leveraging Western research outputs and open or semi-open models.
• •They document that AI data centers and 'AI factories' in South Africa require substantial electricity and complex power wheeling arrangements, stressing local grids.
• •They claim that much of the capital, hardware, and core software for these African AI facilities is sourced from US and Chinese firms, reinforcing external dependence.
• •They suggest that without local model development capacity, African economies risk becoming infrastructure hosts and data sources rather than full participants in AI value capture.