The AI race is heating up, with countries across the world drawing up ambitious plans and channelling huge resources into this space. In 2024, global private AI investments touched $252.3 billion, as per Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Index report. The US widened its lead over other countries, with investments touching $109.1 billion. But, despite pouring in billions of dollars, it may well turn out that China, not the US, wins the AI race. That’s what Nvidia chief Jensen Huang has said in a recent interview. While fears of Chinese dominance have been voiced since the release of Chinese AI model DeepSeek, when the chief of the most valuable company in the world — Nvidia’s market capitalisation recently touched $5 trillion — whose chips form the backbone of the AI ecosystem, says so, it warrants a deeper examination.
On the issue of regulation, Huang has argued that the new rules on AI by US states could result in “50 new regulations”. The fragmented regulatory landscape in the US means that firms will have to wrestle with varying requirements across jurisdictions. This could raise costs, impact innovation. As India moves towards building its own AI ecosystem — from chips to data centres and large language models —it must keep these issues in mind.
