China’s AI quantum leap: The dawn of a new AI order

ARTIFICIAL Intelligence (AI) propels modern technology, reshaping industries and national strategies alike. Though the US and Silicon Valley once dominated AI innovation, China’s AI ecosystem, long underestimated by Western observers, has made what can only be described as a "quantum leap," epitomized by the meteoric rise of DeepSeek. With a fraction of the resources that their American counterparts require, DeepSeek rivals—and sometimes surpasses — GPT-4.0 and Claude, upending assumptions about who will lead Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).

In earlier publications, EMIR Research (ER) warned of two main risks: excluding major AI players like China would fragment the AI landscape, and America’s AI dominance was far from assured. Both are now unfolding. DeepSeek’s ascent is forcing US tech giants and investors to rethink how they allocate billions toward AI infrastructure—particularly GPUs and dedicated power. If DeepSeek can match GPT-4 performance with older GPUs and minimal overhead, the entire AI supply chain—especially Nvidia—faces a seismic shift.