STEVE FORBES: The AI Cold War has begun and America cannot afford to lose

Artificial intelligence competition between China and United States intensifies as Beijing deploys open-weight AI models to challenge American technological leadership.

Steve Forbes is chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media.

Beijing’s strategy centers on so-called "open-weight" AI models—systems whose parameters are downloadable and customizable. These models are exportable by design. They allow foreign governments to run the software on their own infrastructure, keeping servers, chips and data within their borders. In other words, China is offering countries a turnkey path to sovereign AI clouds — powered by Chinese architecture.

By contrast, America’s most advanced labs — companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic—largely operate closed systems. These proprietary models are technological marvels, and U.S. enterprises and federal agencies are adopting them at scale. But they are controlled environments. The rules, safety frameworks and innovation pathways are set inside corporate boardrooms. They are not built to be downloaded, modified and deployed globally as infrastructure.