Trump has few good options to slow China’s rise as AI superpower

U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to extend a trade truce with China reached last year when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the White House next week. | BLOOMBERG

Sep 16, 2026

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump blasts Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over his call to hit the brakes on artificial intelligence development, the two agree on the need to prevent China from catching up with the U.S.

But doing that remains difficult in practice.

In his 3,800-word missive titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” Amodei called on policymakers to avoid selling China advanced AI chips, crack down on chip smuggling and prevent “unauthorized distillation by companies in authoritarian countries,” among other steps. He urged democracies to maintain a lead “as large as possible,” echoing language from the administration of former President Joe Biden.

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