The Most Important People in the U.S.-China AI Competition

The pool of top AI talent is limited, but they play a crucial role in building this transformational technology. More than half of the world’s top AI researchers come from China, but not all of them stay there. In 2022, 46% of top global AI talent was working in the United States and 27% in China, but by 2025 that changed to 34% in the United States and 41% in China. What can the United States do to attract and keep top AI researchers?

Damien Ma joined us on October 15, 2026 to explain the importance of people in the U.S.-China AI competition.

Damien Ma

Damien Ma is the director and Maurice R. Greenberg Director’s Chair of Carnegie China, an East Asia-based research center with its office in Singapore. For two decades, Damien has worked at the intersection of markets, policy, and global affairs, becoming a leading voice on China’s ascendance and U.S.-China dynamics, the most consequential bilateral relationship of the century.