How China’s AI Power Threatens Silicon Valley

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s been one year since Chinese AI developer DeepSeek released an experimental large language model that shocked the tech world with its advanced capabilities, despite strict chip import restrictions. WSJ Senior Global Correspondent Josh Chin and Oxford Analytica technology analyst Tatia Bolkvadze discuss how China’s AI prowess has only grown in the past twelve months, something that is now challenging Silicon Valley’s pricing power, and becoming a bone of contention in the U.S.-China trade war. Luke Vargas hosts. Further Reading: The AI Cold War That Will Redefine Everything China’s Alibaba Links Qwen AI App to Vast Consumer Ecosystem The Row Over South Korea’s Push for a Native AI Model: Chinese Code China’s DeepSeek Unveils New AI Model That Could Halve Usage Cost Silicon Valley Is Raving About a Made-in-China AI Model Chinese AI Developers Say They Can’t Beat America Without Better Chips Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Millions of Americans use credit cards to purchase goods every day. The Durbin Marshall credit card mandates put the secure transactions you rely on at risk, leaving you vulnerable to hackers and foreign cybercriminals that want your data. Hackers win. You lose. Guard your card before it's too late. Tell Congress your data security is not for sale
0:23.5	and oppose the Durbin Marshall credit card mandates. Paid for by Electronic Payments Coalition.
0:33.3	Hey, what's news listeners. It's Sunday, January 18th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to explain what's happening in our world.
0:49.4	On today's show, one year ago, Chinese-made AI model Deepseek shocked the world.
0:55.0	Earth-shattering developments in the AI space.
0:58.0	DeepSeek said its chat bot was created with less than $6 million.
1:03.0	The app has become the most downloaded free app in the US.
1:06.0	Technology shares on Wall Street have fallen sharply.
1:09.0	It's mind-blowing and it is shaking this entire industry.
1:13.0	Since then, China's AI prowess has only grown in ways that could change global
1:18.6	tech norms, challenge Silicon Valley's pricing power and become a bone of contention in the
1:23.5	U.S. China trade war.
1:25.2	This week, China's AI strategy and what it means for the world.
1:29.4	Let's get right to it.
1:32.2	Joining me to unpack China's approach to AI and consider the economic and geopolitical impacts
1:37.9	of its growing adoption, I'm joined by a pair of great guests. First off, Tatia Bulkwadza
1:43.4	is a technology analyst at Oxford Analytica,
1:46.9	and Josh Chin is the Wall Street Journal's senior global correspondent in Asia. Josh, in a nutshell,
1:52.6	what's China's AI strategy? China's AI strategy, as opposed to the U.S. AI strategy,
1:58.1	China's is much more state-driven. Things really picked up in
2:02.4	early 2005. People remember the unveiling of Deep Seek's big frontier model called R1, which was
2:10.4	basically nearly as powerful as the top models from Google, Open AI, Anthropic, had to produce much more cheaply. And this was such a surprise to
	...

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