Investor visits Beijing and Shanghai AI labs: China's labs are far less coordinated than US framing suggests
Dan_Jeffries1 · x · 2026-09-23
Investor David Cheng spent a week in Beijing and Shanghai meeting most major Chinese model labs, researchers, VCs and founders, and highlights an essay's core finding: the phrase "China's AI strategy" is a myth. Every lab, investor, and media contact independently described domestic competition as more brutal than competing with US labs, and laughed at the US framing of Chinese AI as a state-directed bloc. The labs are far less coordinated than US labs — echoing the previous cycle's "War of a Hundred Groupons" (actually 5,000 group-buying firms). Includes a full write-up of his observations from the trip.
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