Chinese leader Xi Jinping is satisfied with his country's performance in the race for AI supremacy.
In his annual New Year's address on Wednesday, the Chinese leader praised his country's technology and AI advances in 2025, saying that China has “deeply integrated science and technology with industry and created new streams of innovation.”
“Many large AI models are competing for the top spot, and we have achieved breakthrough results in the research and development of our own chips,” President Xi said in a speech in Beijing.
He added: “All of this has made China one of the fastest growing economies with innovation capabilities.”
Apart from AI developments, Xi also highlighted China's Tianwen-2 asteroid sampling mission and an aircraft carrier equipped with the latest electromagnetic catapult system.
He spoke about China's commencement of construction of the world's largest dam in Tibetan territory and progress in the development of humanoid robots and drones.
A good year for China
Xi's year-end 2025 comments come after a strong year for the country, which has competed with the United States on advances in AI.
The year started with Chinese AI startup Deepseek releasing its R1 AI model in January, which rivaled OpenAI's o1 and triggered a sell-off in US tech stocks. Nvidia, a leading AI hardware company, saw its stock price fall by more than 17% on January 27, wiping out billions of dollars in value.
The U.S. ban on exports of advanced AI chips has given a boost to China's domestic chip makers, propelling founders like Chen Weiliang, co-founder of MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai, into the ranks of billionaires.
But President Donald Trump acknowledged Nvidia's victory in December, allowing it to sell its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China.
And on Wednesday, Meta announced it would acquire Chinese-founded AI startup Manas in a deal said to be worth more than $2 billion, making it one of the largest acquisitions of an Asian AI company by a U.S. tech company.
Investors are taking note: UBS Wealth Management executive Jason Draho told Business Insider in November that investors should consider Chinese AI stocks as a way to compete with U.S. tech stocks.
