OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned that the U.S. may be underestimating the complexity and seriousness of China’s progress in artificial intelligence, and said export controls alone likely aren’t a reliable solution.
“I’m worried about China,” he said.
Over Mediterranean tapas in San Francisco’s Presidio — just five miles north of OpenAI’s original office in the Mission — Altman offered a rare on-the-record briefing to a small group of reporters, including CNBC. He warned that the U.S.–China AI race is deeply entangled — and more consequential than a simple who’s-ahead scoreboard.
“There’s inference capacity, where China probably can build faster. There’s research, there’s product; a lot of layers to the whole thing,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll be as simple as: Is the U.S. or China ahead?”
Despite escalating U.S. export controls on semiconductors, Altman is unconvinced that the policy is keeping up with technical reality.
