When people talk about China's artificial intelligence, they tend to focus on its gap with the United States in large models. By one view, the six-to-12-month innovation gap between China and the US in large models has been largely closed. Yet more than benchmark comparisons, what deserves attention is how AI is reaching deep into China's real economy and becoming a force that strengthens economic resilience.
The gap largely closed
At the level of large models, Chinese firms are catching up at a striking pace. Models such as Kimi k3 and DeepSeek keep iterating, and China's open-source models are priced 60 to 90 percent lower than comparable products from OpenAI and Anthropic. With low prices and openness together, Chinese models are entering overseas markets: Chinese AI models averaged about 30 percent of weekly token usage at US companies, peaking near 46 percent.
Into the real economy
Unlike the US model, which leans toward service-sector applications, China's AI development places more emphasis on connecting with the physical world and integrating deeply with real industries. Sinopec's Fenghuo industrial intelligence agent helps cut energy use, Zhenhua Heavy Industries' welding-defect recognition reaches 98 percent accuracy, and manufacturers such as Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and Shanghai Turbine Works are embedding AI into production, while in weather there is the MAZU intelligent early-warning solution.
