Meta CEO warns China’s AI speed is a threat to US global leadership

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has warned that the United States could face a strategic disadvantage if it falls behind China in artificial intelligence (AI), calling for faster development of energy capacity and data centres to maintain American leadership in the technology. In a note Zuckerberg said AI leadership could shape the future geopolitical balance of power, including democratic values, economic prosperity and national security.

“Which nations lead the development and deployment of advanced AI will contribute to a new geopolitical balance of power that will determine the prevalence of democratic values, prosperity, and security in the future,” he said.

The Infrastructure Race

Zuckerberg pointed to the speed at which China is developing infrastructure as a key concern for the US. He said the US currently has an advantage in silicon design but faces a disadvantage in how quickly it can build energy capacity and physical infrastructure.

“Countries like China are bringing online 1GW+ of nuclear capacity every other week, so we will need to accelerate building both energy and data centers to remain competitive,” he said.

Maintaining a Competitive Edge

He also argued that the US should continue export controls on silicon, saying they have been successful in slowing the progress of foreign AI labs during what he described as a critical period. Zuckerberg said maintaining leadership in AI could be difficult because advances in the sector are rapidly copied.

“AI is likely the most competitive industry in history. Innovations are quickly copied and absorbed within months,” he said, adding that maintaining even a two-month advantage could be highly valuable. He called for policies that accelerate American AI infrastructure development while avoiding measures that could unnecessarily slow down US-based AI companies.

“Any policy that slows American model releases — even by a month — could add significant risk to American leadership while letting foreign models race ahead,” Zuckerberg said.

Cooperation and Open-Source Leadership

At the same time, he proposed closer cooperation between frontier AI companies and the US government on national security. He suggested that leading AI labs provide the government with intermediate training checkpoints of new advanced models and technical staff so that critical systems can be hardened against emerging risks.

Zuckerberg said this approach could give the government early access to advanced AI capabilities without delaying public releases. The Meta CEO also argued that the US and its allies need to lead the open-source AI ecosystem. He said restricting access to foreign open-source models would not be an effective solution and could instead reduce the quality of AI available to users and increase centralisation.

“Our goal should be for American open source models to be the best globally,” he said.

Vision for Widely Distributed AI

Beyond the geopolitical competition, Zuckerberg’s broader argument is that advanced AI should be distributed widely rather than controlled by a small number of companies or governments. He said Meta is focused on developing personal superintelligence that could be made available to billions of people. He argued that widely distributed AI could strengthen individuals and create a balance of power rather than concentrating advanced technology in the hands of a few institutions.

Economic and Societal Impact

Zuckerberg also said AI could create new opportunities in business, education, scientific research and healthcare. He expects personal AI agents to help people learn new skills, create businesses, develop products and contribute to scientific discoveries. On employment, he said the impact of AI would depend on whether technology is primarily used for automation or to increase people’s capabilities and support invention.

He argued that if individuals have access to personal superintelligence, the technology could potentially support job creation rather than simply eliminate existing jobs.

Addressing Risks and Governance

Zuckerberg highlighted risks related to cybersecurity, bioterrorism, government surveillance, job displacement and maintaining human control over increasingly powerful AI systems. He said Meta would implement a governance structure under which its independent board of directors would have the power to approve safety criteria for releasing AI models and review whether individual releases meet those criteria.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)