Microsoft president Brad Smith has a message for Donald Trump: Chinese government is helping China win AI race outside the West

Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, has warned US President Donald Trump that China is winning the artificial intelligence (AI) race outside America. He noted that US companies are falling behind rivals in markets outside the country. Smith explains that the Chinese government uses low-cost “open” models and large state-backed subsidies to gain an advantage in AI. He also highlighted that the rapid growth of the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek in countries such as Africa underscores the pressure American companies are facing globally.

In an interview with the Financial Times (FT), Smith said: “We have to recognise that right now, unlike a year ago, China has an open-source model, and increasingly more than one, that is competitive.