Hugging Face CEO says China is leading the AI race with open models
China AI race outlook: open-weight models may close the gap with U.S. See why collaboration, security risks, and open models could shape 2026.
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue said China is currently ahead in the AI race, especially in openweight models, and may match U.S. frontier labs by late 2026 or 2027.
Speaking on CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street" on Monday, Delangue said Chinese model makers are benefiting from a strong culture of collaboration and sharing, while U.S. companies are often working separately.
He also pointed to a recent security incident involving OpenAI agents on Hugging Face, saying it highlighted both the growing power of AI systems and the cybersecurity risks they can create. Delangue said the company used a Chinese open model in responding to the attack and argued that open models will play an important role in AI cybersecurity.