Explained: Why Silicon Valley startups are fighting to keep Chinese AI models

The battle over artificial intelligence in the United States is no longer just about who wins the technology race against China. It has now become a fight over who gets to build the next generation of AI.

Nearly 200 Silicon Valley startups, investors and technology companies have come together to urge the Trump administration not to restrict access to Chinese open-weight AI models, warning that such a move would not hurt China as much as it would cripple America’s own startup ecosystem. Their argument is that while the biggest AI companies can afford expensive proprietary models, thousands of smaller firms cannot.