As the global race to become the leader in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) gains pace, new data shows that it is no longer just two horses in the running.
The United States is still in the lead but China is closing the performance gap and Europe is also gaining ground, according to a new report from Stanford University.
US-based institutions produced 40 notable AI models, while China produced 15 and Europe produced three in 2024.
Despite the number produced, the 2025 Stanford Artificial Intelligence Index weighed up several benchmarks and found that Chinese models reached near parity with the US on two performance markers: Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU), which tests AI’s knowledge and problem-solving ability, and HumanEval, which evaluates code generation capabilities.
"The race is tighter than ever, and no one has a clear lead," the report authors from Stanford University said.
The results come as global leaders say winning the AI race is critical to national security and for advancements in health, business and technology.
Meanwhile, companies such as OpenAI, Google and DeepSeek, among many others, are battling it out to build the best AI platforms.
Catch up
When OpenAI’s ChatGPT went viral in late 2022, only it and Google had pioneering AI tech. But fast forward to today and other US companies, such as Meta, Elon Musk’s xAI and Anthropic are catching up, the report showed.
Another benchmark also showed that China’s DeepSeek R1 model ranked closest to OpenAI and Google’s models.
DeepSeek sparked a frenzy in January when it came onto the scene with R1, an artificial intelligence (AI) model and chatbot that the company claimed was cheaper and performed just as well as OpenAI's rival ChatGPT model.
As for the most notable machine learning models in 2024, the top contributors were OpenAI (seven models), Google (six) and China’s Alibaba (four), the report showed.
France’s Mistral AI came in eighth place with three models.
Most patents
Another marker that the AI race is narrowing is the number of AI publications and patents, which shows China way out in front of the US.
The report found that as of 2023, China leads in total AI patents, accounting for almost 70 per cent of all grants. South Korea came in second place and Luxembourg in third, which also stood out as the top AI patent producer on a per capita basis.
AI model development is increasingly global, with notable launches from regions such as the Middle East, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, the report added.
