The Rachman Review13 Nov 2025

The battle for AI supremacy

Gideon Rachman sits down with the FT's innovation editor John Thornhill and Caiwei Chen, China reporter for the MIT Technology Review, to discuss the race between China and the US to become the 21st-century AI superpower. The west is used to hearing about the might of the Silicon Valley giants, US cutting-edge research and chip dominance. But China has a different approach. Will its use of a cheaper and more efficient open AI model allow China to overtake the US with this era-defining technology?

Want more? Join John and the FT’s Chinese technology correspondent Eleanor Olcott in a live Q&A on November 13 at 1pm GMT where they will be answering your questions on the tech battle between Silicon Valley and Beijing.

Submit your question: Will China win the AI race?

And subscribe to a new six part newsletter series - 'The State of AI'. It's a collaboration between the FT and MIT Technology Review where writers from both publications debate the defining questions of the AI era. Sign up here

More on this topic:

The State of AI: is China about to win the race?

China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips

AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here

The AI race

Who’s right about AI: economists or technologists?

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

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The Rachman Review is presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips and the sound design is by Simon Panayi.

Clip: Axios

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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