Trump and Xi to discuss AI competition and cooperation at summit

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet on Thursday, with artificial intelligence (AI) expected to dominate the agenda. Both leaders view AI as a strategic asset, but their approaches differ: the United States emphasizes rapid commercial development, while China focuses on open-weight models and broad economic deployment.

American firms such as Anthropic, Google and OpenAI currently lead on frontier models, with Stanford researchers noting a narrow performance gap between the top U.S. and Chinese systems. The U.S. advantage is supported by substantial private investment and access to advanced microchips, which are restricted from export to China.

China, despite chip limitations, has accelerated the release of open-weight models like Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, which are freely downloadable and adaptable. Analysts say this strategy could give Beijing significant economic and geopolitical leverage by making capable AI widely available at low cost. Lower electricity costs also give Chinese AI developers an energy advantage, according to Rebecca Arcesati of the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

In robotics, China is already the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial and humanoid robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics and Chatham House, underscoring its broader AI ecosystem.

"AI isn’t the moon landing. The U.S. may lead at the frontier, while China could still gain enormous economic and geopolitical leverage by making capable AI cheap, open and ubiquitous," said Lizzi Lee, Asia Society Policy Institute.

Safety and regulation remain points of divergence. Trump has downplayed the need for new rules, claiming existing safeguards are sufficient, while Chinese officials have introduced non-binding guidelines on data use and algorithms to keep AI under human control.

"China has taken a relatively cautious and centrally-coordinated approach," noted Jayant Dave of Check Point Software Technologies.

Ahead of the summit, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng discussed a notification mechanism for serious AI incidents, signaling a willingness to cooperate on risk management despite the competitive backdrop.

"What we don’t want is an unhealthy version of the race narrative to perpetuate," said policy analyst Leia Wang of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The meeting will test whether the two powers can balance rivalry with collaboration as AI reshapes global power dynamics.