The US-China AI Battle is About Economics, Not Technology

[Opinion] Economic strength is the true AI war, technological prowess is merely one battle

Jul 22, 2026

Good Evening from Taipei,

Chinese AI models are the hottest topic in tech this week. Moonshot AI topped the headlines with its Kimi K3 model, followed soon after by Alibaba’s Qwen 3.8-Max.

They’re generally viewed as technological developments.

I see them as economic developments. And over the long term I believe we need to spend more time looking at the US-China AI battle through the lens of economic rivalry.

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