Chinese AI developers have narrowed the performance gap with US frontier models to around four months, but venture funding remains a fraction of American levels, forcing start-ups to explore Hong Kong listings, private credit and customer revenue sharing.
Four months behind. Astonishing. Who could have predicted that a country graduating a million STEM students a year, backed by a state happy to burn cash, would eventually close the quality gap? Meanwhile the funding stays home. Of course it does. Nobody bankrolls a race they’re losing on the balance sheet. File this under "things we all knew in 2023.