China has ‘nearly erased’ America’s lead in AI—and the flow of tech experts moving to the U.S. is slowing to a trickle, Stanford report says

Stanford's 2026 AI Index report shows China has dramatically narrowed its AI capability gap with the U.S., with leading Chinese models now trailing top American models by just 2.7% in Arena scores. China simultaneously leads in patent volume, research citations, and industrial robot deployment, establishing dominance across multiple competitive dimensions.