The Contestable Layer | Chinese Open-Weight Models, Inference Pricing & the AI Capital Stack
Oct 5
1 min read
Artificial intelligence is entering a new phase of international competition. The United States continues to lead at the technological frontier: its laboratories produce the most capable models and attract the deepest concentration of talent and capital. An equally consequential question is whether that technological leadership translates into commercial leadership.
In this paper, we examine whether U.S. technological leadership can translate into durable economic value as open-weight Chinese models rapidly narrow the capability gap and reset the price of AI.
