President Donald Trump lauds the U.S. artificial intelligence industry as “leading China by a lot.” Experts beg to differ: The U.S. has an edge when it comes to AI chips, but China’s models, talent and electricity generation are nipping at the U.S. industry’s heels.

AI chips are essential — they are tailored to do tasks such as image and speech recognition. (AP)Chinese companies have built competitive large language models — AI models trained to mimic language and perform tasks such as summarization, translation and chat. One research institute analysis found that since 2023, Chinese models have trailed U.S. models by seven months on average. Insufficient electricity can impede AI training and inference, which refers to running AI models to make predictions based on new data. The U.S. has a lead over China in model capability, but key AI industry leaders and experts say China is only a few months behind.