Stanford’s AI Index finds China has nearly closed the performance gap with the US despite spending 23 times less

In short: Stanford’s 2026 AI Index Report finds the performance gap between the best American and Chinese AI models has collapsed to 2.7%, down from 17.5-31.6 percentage points in May 2023, despite the US spending 23 times more on private AI investment ($285.9 billion vs $12.4 billion). China leads in AI patents (69.7% of global filings), publications (23.2% of global output), industrial robot installations (9x the US rate), and energy infrastructure, while AI talent migration to the US has dropped 89% since 2017.

The performance gap between the best American and Chinese AI models has collapsed to 2.7%, according to the 2026 AI Index Report published this week by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. In May 2023, the gap was between 17.5 and 31.6 percentage points across major benchmarks. As of March 2026, Anthropic’s Claude ...